THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 

OE  CALIEORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Social  Science  XLcxUBoohs 

Edited  by   RICHARD  T.   ELY 


THE   LABOR   MARKET 


SOCIAL  SCIENCE  TEXT-BOOKS 

Edited  by  Richard  T.  Ely 


OUTLINES    OF   ECONOMICS 

By    Richard    T.    Ely,    Ph.D.,    LL.D.     Revised    and 

enlarged  by  the  Author  and  Thomas  S.  Adams, 
Ph.D.,     Max    O.     Lorenz,     Ph.D.,     Allyn     A. 
Young,  Ph.D. 
OUTLINES    OF   SOCIOLOGY       • 

By  Frank  W.  Blackmar,   Ph.D.,  and   John   Lewis 
GiLLiN,  Ph.D. 
THE   NEW   AMERICAN   GOVERNMENT 

By  James  T.  Young,  Ph.D. 
SOCIAL   PROBLEMS 

By  Ezra  T.  Towne,  Ph.D. 
PROBLEMS    OF   CHILD   WELFARE 

By  George  B.  Mangold,  Ph.D. 
COMPARATIVE    FREE   GOVERNMENT 

By  Jesse  Macy,  LL.D.,  and  John  W.  Gannaway,  M.A. 
AMERICAN   MUNICIPAL  PROGRESS 

By  Charles  Zueblin. 
BUSINESS  ORGANIZATION  AND   COMBINATION 
By  Lewis  H.  Haney,  Ph.D. 

HISTORY   OF   ECONOMIC   THOUGHT  (Revised  Edi- 
tion) 

By  Lewis  H.  Haney,  Ph.D. 
APPLIED  EUGENICS 

By  Paul  Popenoe  and  Roswell  H.  Johnson,  M.S. 
AGRICULTURAL   ECONOMICS 

By  Henry  C.  Taylor,  M.S.  Agr.,  Ph.D. 
THE   LABOR   MARKET 

By  Don  D.  Lescohier. 


THE  LABOR  MARKET 


BY 

DON  D.   LESCOHIER 

Associate  Professor  of  Economics,  University  of  Wisconsin 
Formerly  Superintendent  Minnesota  Public  Employ- 
ment Office  ;  Chief  Statistician,  Minnesota 
Department  of  Labor  and  Industries 


THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 
1919 

All  rights  Tcsertti 


Copyright,  1919, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  1919. 


Nartoooti  ^ttss 

J.  8.  Gushing  Co.  —  Berwick  <fc  Smith  Co. 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


b7Z4- 


XLo  iSs^  Wlite 

WHOSE  DEEP  INTEREST  IN  THE  PROBLEM 

OF  EMPLOYMENT 

HAS   BEEN   MY   INSPIRATION 

IN  THIS  WORK 


\ 


PREFACE 

This  work  has  a  very  definite  purpose.  It  aims  to  prove  the 
necessity  for  national  machinery  for  the  control  of  the  problem 
of  employment  and  to  furnish  information  which  the  author 
hopes  will  be  of  value  to  employment  oflSce  managers  and  to 
students  of  the  employment  and  the  labor  problem.  The 
conditions  of  supply  and  demand  in  the  labor  market  are 
analyzed  in  Part  I ;  past,  present,  and  needed  labor  market 
machinery  are  discussed  in  Part  II ;  while  the  common  laborer 
and  the  farm  laborer  are  given  special  consideration  in  Part  III. 

The  writer  has  had  three  groups  of  readers  in  mind  in  the 
preparation  of  the  work :  (i)  the  general  reader,  particularly  the 
employer  and  the  legislator;  (2)  the  employment  ofl&cial;  and 
(3)  the  college  or  university  teacher  and  his  students.  Readers 
who  desire  to  make  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  subject  of 
employment,  and  teachers  who  want  a  concise  but  fairly  ade- 
quate library  for  class  use,  will  find  that  the  following  books 
supplement  the  present  work:  "Employment:  A  Problem  of 
Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge;  "Industrial  Good  Will,"  John 
R.  Commons;  "The  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,"  Sumner 
Slichter ;  and  "Hiring  the  Worker,"  Roy  W.  Kelly.  Beveridge's 
work  is  the  foundation  upon  which  all  subsequent  writers  have 
builded,  and  the  writer  wishes  to  add  his  tribute  of  appreciation 
of  its  informing  and  suggestive  pages.  The  bibliographical 
note  in  Appendix  1  will  be  of  assistance  in  directing  the  reader 
to  valuable  sources  of  current  information. 

The  author  has  called  attention  to  a  large  amount  of  sup- 
plementary material  in  the  footnotes,  chapter  references,  and 
bibliography.  The  references  do  not  exhaust  the  material  on 
the  subject  of  employment.  The  author  has  simply  selected  a 
sufl6cient  number  of  references  to  corroborate  his  points,  to 
present  the  views  of  those  who  disagree  with  him,  and  to  furnish 


VUl  PREFACE 

additional  reading  for  students  of  the  problem.  He  has  not 
cited  any  of  the  French  or  German  references  at  all,  although 
there  are  many  studies  of  employment  in  the  foreign  languages. 
Suggestions  and  criticisms  of  much  value  have  been  received 
during  the  preparation  of  this  work  from  the  author's  colleagues, 
Professors  Richard  T.  Ely,  John  R.  Commons,  and  Edward  A. 
Ross.  Professor  B.  H.  Hibbard,  of  the  University  of  Wisconsin 
College  of  Agriculture,  kindly  read  and  criticized  Chapter  XIII, 
on  Farm  Labor.  The  author  also  desires  to  acknowledge  in- 
debtedness to  Dr.  William  R.  Leiserson  of  Toledo  University; 
Dr.  M.  B.  Hammond  of  Ohio  State  University ;  Dr.  Charles  B. 
Barnes,  formerly  state  superintendent  of  the  employment  offices 
of  New  York  State ;  Sanford  E.  H.  Freund,  formerly  Director 
of  the  Clearance  Division  of  the  United  States  Employment 
Service;  Frank  E.  Hoffman  of  the  Minnesota  Department  of 
Labor ;  and  David  C.  Adie  of  the  Minneapolis  Civic  and  Com- 
merce Association,  for  suggestions  which  they  have  contributed 
to  the  writer's  thought  on  employment  at  one  time  or  another 
during  the  last  few  years.  The  New  York  State  Industrial 
Commission,  through  L.  W.  Hatch,  chief  statistician,  has 
kindly  loaned  the  author  a  series  of  curves  which  appear  in 
Chapter  II,  while  the  Texas  Mechanical  and  Agricultural 
College,  through  Professor  H.  M.  Eliot,  has  extended  the  same 
courtesy.    Their  charts  appear  in  Chapter  XIV. 


TABLE   OF   CONTENTS 


PART  I 

SUPPLY  AND   DEMAND   FACTORS   IN  THE  LABOR 
MARKET 

CHAPTER 

I.    The  Labor  Supply 

Five  characteristics  of  labor  supply 

Immigration  and  the  labor  supply 

The  labor  reserve  .... 

Decentralization  of  the  labor  reserve 
^  Labor  turnover      .... 
jv,Unorganized  labor  distribution 


n. 


The  Demand  for  Labor        .... 
Decentralized  character  of  the  demand  for  labor 
Rise  and  decline  of  industries  and  occupations 
Fluctuation  of  labor  demand  due  to  changes  within  in- 
dustry     

Fluctuation  due  to  changes  in  industrial  prosperity 

Fluctuation  due  to  seasons    . 

Irregular  fluctuations    .... 

Casual  demand  fluctuations  . 

Cyclical  fluctuations      .... 


III.    Occupational  Idleness  and  the  Idle 
~^   Types  of  unemployment 

Causes  of  Idleness         .... 
Maladjustment  of  supply  and  (Remand 
Effect  of  ineflaciency  .... 
Dissatisfaction  with  the  work    . 
Industrial  incapacities 
Health  and  employment    . 
Personal  causes  of  idleness 
Non-industrial  causes  of  idleness 
Incidence  of  unemployment  . 
-  The  unemployable         .... 
Social  costs  of  unemployment 


PAGES 

3-20 

3 

3-9 

9-13 

13-18 

18-19 

19-20 

21-67 
21-22 
22-24 

24-29 
29-32 
32-51 
51-58 
58-64 
64-67 

68-110 

68-70 
70-97 

71 
71-89 
89-92 
92-93 
93-94 
94-96 

97 

97-100 

100-102 

102-110 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CHAPTM 
IV. 


Labor  Turnover  . 
Types  of  turnover 
Causes  of  turnover 
Costs  of  turnover  . 
Statistics  of  turnover 
Reduction  of  turnover 


V.    Mitigation  of  Occupational  Idleness 
Significance  of  unemployment 
Stabilization  of  production    . 
Dovetailing  of  establishment  demands 
Conservation  of  labor  eflSciency    . 
Relief  work 


PAGES 
III-I2I 

III-II3 

II3-IIS 
II4-II8 
I16-I18 
I18-I2I 

122-138 
122-124 
124-130 
130-132 
132-138 


VI. 


VIII. 


PART  II 


THE  MACHINERY  OF  THE  LABOR-MARKET 


The  Labor  Market  before  the  War 
"  Market "  defined 
Direct  employment 
The  labor  market  before  the  war  . 

Private,  fee  charging  agencies    . 

Regulation  of  private  agencies  . 

Employers'  employment  oflSces . 

Trade  union  employment  service 

Philanthropic  oflSces  . 

Public  ofl&ces      .... 


VII.    Development  of  Public  Employment  Exchanges 
Organization  before  the  war  .... 

Attitude  of  employers 

Causes  for  organization         .... 
Evolution  of  public  thought  on  subject 
State  contributions  to  employment  practice  . 
National  farm  labor  exchange 
Early  federal  efforts 


The  War  and  the  Employment  Market  . 
Depression  and  unemployment  in  19:4-1915 
Recovery  of  industry 


141-163 

141-143 

143-144 

145 

145-158 

155-157 

158 

159 

159 

160-163 

164-176 
164-166 
164-165 
I 66-1 71 
166-173 
171-173 

173 
174-176 

177-185 

177-178 
179-180 


TABLE  OF   CONTENTS  XI 

cHArra  pages 

Labor  shortage 180-184 

Chaos  in  the  labor  market 182-185 

IX.    The  United  States  Employment  Service   .        .        .  186-199 

Military  motives  in  its  creation 186 

Failure  of  immigration  bureau  employment  service       .  186-187 

Creation  of  United  States  employment  service      .        .  186-187 

Evolution  of  organization 187-189 

Expansion  of  service 189-192 

Public  Service  Reserve  and  Boys'  Working  Reserve      .  191-192 

Difficulties 192 

Attitude  of  employers  and  wage  earners       ,        .        .  193-194 

State  advisory  boards 194-195 

Community  labor  boards 195-196 

Appraisal  of  service 196-198 

Simimary 198-199 

X.    Lessons  from  the  British  and  Canadian  Employment 

Systems 200-211 

British  System 200-210 

Board  of  Trade  Department  of  Labor        .        .        .  200-202 

State  Advisory  Boards 202 

Number  of  exchanges 202-  206 

Clearing  system 203-204 

Attitude  of  employers 206-207 

Purpose  of  system 207-208 

Business  principles 208-210 

Canadian  employment  service 210-21 1 

XI.    A  Federal  Employment  Service 212-241 

Cooperative  plan 213 

Federal  plan 214-215 

Financial  responsibility 216-223 

Administrative  control 220-226 

Advisory  boards 221-226 

National  EmplojTuent  Service  Council         .        .     221,  223-226 

Executive  organization 221-227 

Clearance      227-231 

Functions 231-234 

Policies 234-240 

Personnel 240-241 

XII.    The  Employment  Department 242-250 

Employment  policies  within  industry  ....  242-244 

The  employment  manager 245-246 


xii  TABLE  OF   CONTENTS 


CHAPTER 


Relation  of  employment  manager  to  employment  ex- 
change     246-248 

PART   III 

SPECIAL   PROBLEMS   OF   EMPLOYMENT 

XIII.    The  Laborer 251-275 

Relation  of  the  laborer  to  the  emplo)mfient  exchange     .  251 

Classification  of  laborers,  by  skill 252-255 

Classification  of  laborers,  by  regularity          .         .         .  255-256 

The  steady  laborer 255-258 

Sources  of  laborers 257-259 

The  irregular  laborer 259-263 

(The  casual 263-267 

Decasualizing  the  casual 267-270 

/Migratory  laborers  —  temporary       ....  270-271 

'  Migratory  laborers  —  confirmed         ....  271-274 

Policies  of  employment  service 274-275 

XrV.     Farm  Labor 276-306 

The  farm  labor  problem ;  what  is  it?    ....  276-279 

Farm  labor  demand,  types  of 279-283 

Crop  diversification  and  labor  demand  ....  283-286 

Factors  influencing  labor  demand          ....  286-288 

Peculiarities  of  farm  labor  demand        ....  288-301 

Pennsylvania 288-289 

Indiana 289-290 

Tennessee 290-291 

Kentucky 291 

Kansas       291-292 

South  Dakota 292-294 

Minnesota 294-295 

Montana 295-296 

Texas 296 

Mississippi 296 

Washington 296-298 

California  . 298-301 

The  employment  exchange  and  the  farmer    .        .        ,  301-306 

XV.    Unemployment  Insurance 307-309 

Bibliography 311-324 

Chapter  References 325-334 

Index 335-338 


PART   I 

SUPPLY  AND   DEMAND    FACTORS   IN  THE  LABOR 

MARKET 


THE  LABOR  MARKET 


CHAPTER  I 
THE  LABOR  SUPPLY 

There  are  five  essential  facts  with  respect  to  the  labor  supply 
of  the  United  States  which  must  be  taken  into  account  when  we 
attempt  to  cope  with  the  American  labor  problem :  (i),  the  fluc- 
tuating but  unceasing  flow  of  immigrant  laborers ;  (2),  an  ever- 
present  labor  reserve ;  (3),  the  decentralized  character  of  that  re- 
serve; (4),  excessive  labor  turnover;  and  (5),  a  defective  system 
of  labor  distribution.  These  five  phenomena  are  closely  related. 
Each  is  both  a  cause  and  a  result  of  the  others.  Taken  together 
they  furnish  a  picture  of  the  labor  supply  side  of  our  labor  market. 
The  opposite  or  demand  side  of  the  picture  is  presented  in  the 
next  chapter. 

I.  Immigration  and  the  Labor  Supply 

Immigration  has  been  in  a  large  measure  a  response  to  an  ac- 
tive demand  for  labor  in  America.  Year  by  year,  as  the  power 
of  our  industries  to  absorb  labor  has  increased,  the  tide  of  im- 
migration has  mounted  higher  and  higher.  Each  successive 
wave  of  immigration  reached  a  higher  point  than  the  one  which 
preceded  it,  until  we  attained  the  high-water  mark  of  1,285,349 
entrants  in  1907,  a  figure  almost  equaled  again  in  19 14,  just 
before  the  outbreak  of  the  war  cut  short  our  sixth  great  im- 
migration wave.  The  movement  from  Europe  to  America 
since  1898  has  outstripped  all  labor  migrations  in  human  history. 
In  almost  every  year  the  number  of  immigrants  increased  by 
tens  or  hundreds  of  thousands,  and  1908  was  the  only  year  which 

3 


4  THE   LABOR   MARKET 

did  not  increase  our  immigrant  population.  Six  years  each 
brought  more  than  a  million,  and  the  only  year  in  the  last 
quarter  century  which  has  witnessed  a  decrease  in  our  alien 
population  (1908),  produced  a  reduction  of  only  124,124  aliens, 
which  was  almost  balanced  by  our  net  increase  in  the  succeeding 
January  and  February} 

America  has  continually  called  for  more  labor.^  Her  de- 
mand, transmitted  across  the  waters  in  a  hundred  ways,  has 
attracted  Europe's  sons  by  the  millions.  The  slackening  move- 
ment of  Germans,  Scandinavians,  English,  Irish,  and  Scotch 
has  been  more  than  compensated  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
who  have  each  year  left  the  hills,  valleys,  or  plains  of  Italy,  Greece, 
the  Balkans,  Austria-Hungary,  and  Russia.  Penetrating  ever 
farther  into  Europe  and  Asia,  America's  invitation  reached  the 
Italian,  the  Slav,  the  Magyar,  and  the  Jew;  then  the  Syrian, 
the  Arab,  and  the  Hindoo ;  and  the  gates  of  Asia  have  opened 
for  new  races  who  are  crossing  the  seas  to  try  their  fortunes  in 
the  cities  and  fields  of  America.  During  the  war,  Mexico's 
peons  heard  the  call  of  opportunities  across  the  border  more 
strongly  than  ever  before,  and  they  came  as  far  north  as  Min- 
nesota to  find  a  place  in  our  industry. 

Our  net  increase  of  population  by  immigration  between  1900 
and  191 7  was  over  ten  millions.  The  simple  facts  that  such  mul- 
titudes have  come  to  us  and  have  somehow  found  a  livelihood, 
that  the  volume  of  immigration  has  been  much  larger  in  pros- 
perous than  in  duU  years,  and  that  emigration  is  heavier  in 
work-slack  periods,  have  suggested  that  the  inflow  of  immigra- 
tion adjusts  itself  to  the  labor  demand  and  forms  an  elastic 
element  that  helps  us  out  when  we  are  busy  and  reUeves  us  of 
our  excess  labor  when  business  is  dull. 

Unfortunately,  the  conclusion  is  not  entirely  true.  A  frac- 
tion of  the  immigrants  come  to  America  to  fill  our  short-time 
demands  for  labor,  but  a  large  majority  of  our  immigrants  do  not 
leave  as  soon  as  they  find  that  industry's  demands  for  labor  are 

1  "Immigration  and  Crises,"  H.  P.  Fairchild,  American  Economic  Review,  Vol.  I, 
No.  4,  December,  igii. 

*  We  do  not  overlook  the  fact  that  many  non-economic  reasons  cause  immigration 
to  come  now  as  in  the  past. 


THE   LABOR   SUPPLY  5 

beginning  to  slacken.  They  come  to  America  to  establish  their 
homes  here.  They  come  to  stay,  not  to  sojourn.  The  "bird 
of  passage,"  about  whom  so  much  has  been  said  and  written, 
is  the  least  important  element  in  immigration.  The  immigrants 
who  come  to  "make  a  stake"  and  then  return  to  Europe  to  live 
are  insignificant  in  numbers,  compared  with  those  who  come  to 
America  to  become  Americans.^  A  large  proportion  of  those 
who  do  return  to  Europe  come  back  to  America  again  and  bring 
others  with  them. 

An  increase  in  immigration  during  our  prosperous  years 
and  a  decrease  in  dull  times  is  perfectly  natural.  If  you  or  I 
were  migrating  to  Australia  and  had  to  depend  upon  our  hands 
for  a  living,  we  would  try  to  time  our  arrival  so  that  we  would 
have  the  maximum  chance  of  earning  a  living.  If  the  letters 
of  those  who  had  gone  before  indicated  that  work  was  plentiful, 
we  would  go.  If  they  told  us  of  unemployment  and  low  wages, 
we  would  bide  our  time.  If  we  were  already  there,  and  had 
accumulated  some  money  with  which  to  go  home  and  get  our 
families  and  times  became  dull,  we  would  return  home  at  once 
rather  than  remain  abroad  in  idleness.  But  when  conditions 
picked  up  we  would  go  back  again.  If  we  had  gone  to  Australia 
with  intention  to  remain  there,  we  would  "stick  it  out"  until 
prosperity  returned.  This  is  exactly  what  occurs  among  the 
European  immigrants  to  America. 

Consequently,   immigration   does   not   produce   that   accurate 

*  Professor  H.  P.  Fairchild  has  made  this  clear  with  respect  to  the  unusually  heavy 
emigration  of  igoS: 

"Now  what  catches  the  public  eye  in  such  an  epoch  as  this,  is  the  large  number  of 
departures.  We  are  accustomed  to  immense  numbers  of  arrivals  and  we  think  Uttle 
about  that  side  of  it.  But  heavy  emigration  is  a  phenomenon,  and  accordingly  we 
hear  much  about  how  acceptably  our  alien  population  serves  to  accommodate  the 
supply  of  labor  to  the  demand.  But  if  we  stop  to  add  up  the  monthly  figures,  we  find 
that  for  the  entire  period  after  the  crises  of  igo;,  when  emigration  exceeded  immigra- 
tion, the  total  decrease  in  alien  population  was  only  124,124  —  scarcely  equal  to  the 
immigration  of  a  single  month  during  a  fairly  busy  season.  This  figure  is  almost 
infinitesimal  compared  to  the  total  mass  of  the  American  working  people,  or  to  the 
amount  of  unemployment  at  a  normal  time,  to  say  nothing  of  a  crisis.  It  is  thus 
evident  that  the  importance  of  our  alien  population  as  an  alleviating  force  at  the  time 
of  a  crisis  has  been  vastly  exaggerated.  The  most  that  can  be  said  for  it  is  that  it  has 
a  very  trilling  palliative  effect."  —  American  Economic  Review,  Vol.  I,  No.  4,  De- 
cember, igii,  p.  758. 


6  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

adjustment  of  labor  supply  to  labor  demand  which  some  have 
assumed.  The  movement  of  labor  from  Europe  to  America  is 
a  movement  of  human  beings  seeking  new  homes  in  a  better 
environment.  //  is  not  controlled  by  any  accurate  knpwledge  of 
market  conditions;  neither  is  it  regulated  by  any  authority.  It  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  millions  of  people  in  Europe  believe  that 
America  is  a  better  place  for  them  to  live  than  their  homelands. 
They  come  by  hundred  thousands  in  response  to  letters  from 
relatives  and  friends  who  are  here.  Whole  villages  and  districts 
have  been  almost  depopulated  of  able-bodied  men  when  returned 
immigrants  flaunted  their  American  prosperity  in  the  eyes  of 
simple  peasants  and  told  fascinating  tales  of  the  wealth,  the 
liberties,  and  the  opportunities  of  America.  Steamship  adver- 
tisements and  agents  have  played  no  negligible  part  in  turning 
many  to  our  shores,  and  employers  have  found  a  host  of  ways 
in  which  to  send  the  lure  of  a  job  to  peasants  eking  out  a  scanty 
existence.  The  foreman  has  found  it  easy  to  suggest  to  his 
laborers  that  their  countrymen  would  find  work  at  good  wages 
if  they  came  over,  and  the  home-going  letter  carried  a  message 
backed  by  the  words  of  "  the  boss."  Foreign  grafters  in  America 
—  padrones,  immigrant  bankers,  and  other  "leaders"  of  foreign 
groups  —  have  encouraged  the  immigration  of  fresh  material 
for  their  exploitation.  In  times  of  prosperity  the  letters  pour- 
ing across  the  Atlantic  fascinate  with  high  wages,  plenty  of 
work,  hope,  and  enthusiasm.  In  dull  times,  they  warn  of  un- 
employment, lowered  earnings,  and  the  hardships  of  the  out  of 
work.  By  such  undirected  means  as  these  the  fluctuation  is 
produced.^ 

1  The  United  States  Immigration  Commission  saj'S  on  this:  "Through  the 
medium  of  letters  from  those  already  in  the  United  States  and  the  visits  of  former 
emigrants,  the  emigrating  classes  of  Europe  are  kept  constantly  if  not  always  re- 
liably informed  as  to  labor  conditions  here,  and  these  agencies  are  by  far  the  most 
pwtent  promoters  of  the  present  movement  of  population.  ...  In  fact,  it  is  en- 
tirely safe  to  assert  that  letters  of  friends  at  home  from  persons  who  have  emigrated 
have  been  the  immediate  cause  of  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  remarkable  movement 
from  southern  and  eastern  Europe  to  the  United  States  during  the  past  twenti'-five 
years.  ...  It  was  frequently  stated  to  members  of  the  Commission  that  letters 
from  persons  who  have  emigrated  to  America  were  passed  from  hand  to  hand  until 
most  of  the  emigrant's  friends  and  neighbors  were  acquainted  with  the  contents. 


THE   LABOR   SUPPLY  7 

When  the  flow  gets  under  way  immigration  continues  for 
some  time  after  depression  has  begun  in  this  country,  because 
it  takes  a  long  time  for  retarding  influences  in  America  to  be 
thoroughly  felt  on  the  other  side.  Similarly,  when  conditions 
improve,  it  requires  positive  assurance  of  better  times  before 
the  immigrants  will  start  out  again.  Supply  adjusts  itself 
to  demand  only  in  an  inaccurate  manner  that  produces  untold 
suffering  for  thousands  and  leaves  imprints  in  our  social  life 
that  cannot  easily  be  effaced.  When  the  flow  is  on,  too  many 
are  apt  to  come,  producing  unfortunate  surpluses.  When  times 
get  dull,  those  surpluses  remain  and  make  the  unemployment 
situation  more  acute.  Even  during  the  prosperous  period  many 
go  to  places  where  they  are  not  needed,  rather  than  to  localities 
where  labor  is  in  demand.  In  thousands  of  cases  their  destina- 
tion in  America  is  determined  by  the  residence  of  relatives  or 
friends  rather  than  by  industrial  demands.  When  times  become 
slack,  only  a  fraction  want  to^  return  to  Europe  and  many  who 
would  like  to  go  are  unable. 

The  fact  cannot  be  too  emphatically  stated  that  the  flow  of 
Europe's  living  stream  to  America  is  in  obedience  to  a  law  of 
life  as  real  as  the  law  of  gravitation.  It  is  part  of  a  world  process 
of  social  equilibration.  Human  population  tends  to  flow  from 
poorer  environments  into  better  ones  and  will  do  so  as  long  as 
there  are  marked  inequalities  of  welfare  in  different  lands.  A 
decline  of  immigration  from  northwestern  Europe  has  occurred 
during  the  past  twenty-five  years  because  social  conditions 
there  are  more  nearly  equivalent  to  those  in  America.  Immi- 
gration from  southeastern  Europe,  on  the  other  hand,  began 
during  this  period  because  knowledge  then  penetrated  to  Austria, 
Russia,  Italy,  Greece,  and  Asia  Minor  that  America  would  be 
to  them  a  Promised  Land.  The  better  wages  and  expanding 
opportunities  of  employment  in  America  were  dynamic  forces 
that  loosened  these  peoples  from  their  custom-bound  lives  in 

In  periods  of  industrial  activity,  as  a  rule,  the  letters  so  circulated  contain  optimis- 
tic references  to  wages  and  opportunities  for  employment  in  the  United  States.  .  .  . 
The  reverse  is  true  during  seasons  of  industrial  depression  in  the  United  States."  — 
Abstract  of  Reports  of  the  United  States  Immigration  Commission,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  187-188. 


8  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

Europe  and  drew  them  to  our  shores.  But  the  pull  of  these 
forces  was  not  nicely  adjusted  to  the  actual  volume  of  employ- 
ment open  to  them  here. 

It  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  the  accretions  of  popula- 
tion due  to  immigration  have  produced  a  surplus  of  labor  in 
America  that  could  not  be  employed.  Our  industries  have 
been  expanding  and  developing  with  marvelous  rapidity  in 
the  last  quarter  century.  Mr.  I.  A.  Hourwich  '  cites  govern- 
ment reports  which  indicate  that  our  coal  consumption,  bank 
clearings,  and  railroad  ton  miles  trebled  between  1888  and  1908, 
our  copper  production  quadrupled,  and  our  steel  production 
increased  fivefold,  while  our  population  increased  but  46 
per  cent.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  important  cause 
of  the  increase  of  immigration  in  the  last  twenty-five  years 
has  been  the  necessity  for  more  crude  labor  to  work  in  con- 
junction with  our  labor-saving  machinery  and  expanding  capital 
in  the  development  and  utilization  of  our  natural  resources. 
A  growing  country  has  required  an  increasing  population.  It 
is  probably  true  that  the  multitude  of  cheap  immigrant  laborers 
which  poured  into  the  country  between  1900  and  1907  and  again 
between  1909  and  1914  tended  to  stimulate  production  and 
contributed  to  undue  business  expansion,  but  it  is  likewise 
beyond  question  that  the  nation  had  reached  a  stage  where  it 
was  ready  for  more  rapid  development  and  able  to  use  a  greatly 
increased  labor  force. 

It  is  important  to  note  in  this  x;onnection  that  in  modern 
industry  labor  is  used  in  combinations.  The  specialization  of 
tasks  and  subdivision  of  occupations  has  created  a  situation  in 
which  skilled,  partly  skilled,  and  unskilled  workers  are  each  and 
all  required  for  the  performance  of  a  single  piece  of  work,  and  the 
absence  of  one  of  the  necessary  types  of  labor  may  prevent  all 
the  other  workers  in  the  group  from  securing  employment 
just  as  surely  as  the  absence  of  a  demand  for  the  product,  or 
a  lack  of  machinery,  raw  materials,  or  of  buildings.  The  immi- 
grant has  in  some  cases  competed  with  the  American  for  a  job ; 

'  Cf.  "Economic  Aspects  of  Immigration,"  Isaac  A.  Hourwich,  Political  Science 
Quarterly,  Vol.  XXVI,  No.  4,  pp.  615  f. 


THE  LABOR   SUPPLY  9 

in  other  cases  he  has  completed  the  crew  and  enabled  the 
American  skilled  worker  to  be  employed.^ 

2.   The  Labor  Reserve 

And  yet,  in  every  year  and  month,  and  on  every  day  when 
these  millions  have  been  coming,  —  14,298,018  between  July  i, 
1900,  and  June  i,  1918,  —  there  have  been  idle  workmen  on 
the  streets  of  practically  every  city  and  town  in  America. 
Labor  shortage  and  labor  surplus  have  been  coexistent. 
Abundant  supplies  of  land,  rich  natural  resources,  and  plentiful 
capital  have  needed  labor  for  their  utilization.  Wages  higher 
than  those  prevalent  in  Europe  bespoke  an  insistent  desire  for 
men.  Nevertheless  almost  every  morning  in  the  year  found 
idle  men  at  tens  of  thousands  of  factory  gates,  or  hanging  around 
employment  offices  and  loafing  places.  The  workless  paced 
the  streets  of  the  cities  and  were  present  in  nearly  every  country 
town.  Labor  surplus  has  been  as  ever  present  as  labor  shortage. 
Investigation  after  investigation  of  employment  conditions 
has  demonstrated  a  continuous  supply  of  idle  men.  No  records 
yet  compiled  (so  far  as  1  know)  have  ever  found  the  unemployed 
reduced  to  zero.-  Employers  have  lacked  men  and  at  the  very 
same  time  men  have  lacked  work. 

An  explanation  of  this  paradox  is  fundamental  to  intelligent 
discussion  of  conditions  in  the  labor  market.     It  is  certainly 

•  A  typical  illustration  may  be  cited.  A  steam-shovel  crew  consists  of  an  engineer, 
who  controls  the  power-creating  apparatus  of  the  shovel  and  the  movement  of  the 
shovel  from  point  to  point  along  the  job;  a  "runner,"  who  operates  the  dipper; 
and  three  or  four  pitmen,  who  are  common  laborers,  often  recent  immigrants.  If 
the  employer  lacks  an  engineer,  the  whole  crew  must  remain  idle.  If  he  lacks  a 
"runner,"  the  same  thing  is  true.  If  he  could  not  find  the  pitmen,  the  engineer 
and  runner,  skilled  as  they  are,  would  be  unable  to  operate.  The  entire  labor 
combination  must  be  available  or  the  work  cannot  proceed. 

This  condition  is  as  characteristic  of  manufacturing,  many  phases  of  agriculture 
and  merchandising,  railroad  work,  lumbering,  and  many  other  industries  as  it  is  of 
shovel  operation. 

*  Professor  M.  B.  Hammond  of  Ohio  State  University  states  that  after  February, 
igi5,  the  level  of  unemployment  in  Great  Britain  was  less  than  one  per  cent,  "a 
level  lower  than  that  reached  at  any  other  time  since  such  figures  began  to  be 
gathered."  —  American  Economic  Review,  \o\.  Will,  No.  i.  Supplement,  March, 
1918,  p.  147. 


lO  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

true  that  surplus  and  deficit  cannot  steadily  coexist  in  the 
commodity  market  of  the  whole  nation.  We  either  have  more 
wheat  than  we  want,  or  less,  or  just  enough.  How,  then,  can 
we  have  deficit  and  surplus  coexistent  in  the  labor  market  ? 

We  omit  from  consideration  for  the  moment  the  fact  that 
some  of  the  "unemployed"  are  not  entitled  to  that  designation. 
They  are  "unemployable  "  ;  either  through  incapacity  or  incli- 
nation.^ They  are  idlers  or  unfits  rather  than  "unemployed." 
It  is  our  present  task  to  account  for  the  presence  of  unemployed 
workers  in  a  labor  market  that  is  calling  for  men. 

The  first  fact  which  we  must  note  is  that  the  supply  of  labor 
cannot  fluctuate  in  amount  in  harmony  with  the  fluctuation 
of  demand  for  it  to  the  extent  that  the  supply  of  commodities 
does.  The  supply  of  iron,  grains,  or  cloth  is  controlled  by  the 
acts  of  persons  who  produce  or  fail  to  produce  according  as  they 
expect  or  do  not  expect  that  production  will  be  profitable. 
Supply  is  quickly  increased  or  diminished  in  response  to  cal- 
culations by  producers  of  prospective  prices.  Intelligence  and 
prudence  dictate  their  action  in  the  matter.  If  producers 
err  and  give  us  an  oversupply,  they  suffer  in  lowered  prices 
and  we  store  the  commodity  for  future  use.  Future  output 
is  decreased  until  the  surplus  is  consumed.  In  normal  times 
oversupply  or  undersupply  is  a  temporary,  short-time  phenom- 
enon, often  local  in  its  effects,  and  simply  affects  prices  and 
future  production. 

The  labor  supply  is  entirely  different.  Labor  is  an  expression 
of  the  personal  energy  of  a  human  being.  The  productive 
energy  which  the  laborer  sells  to  his  employer  is  inseparable 
in  existence  and  in  use  from  the  personality  of  the  laborer.  In 
order  to  increase  the  supply  of  labor  power  in  the  world  we  must 
either  increase  the  number  of  people  or  materially  increase  their 
efficiency.  In  order  to  decrease  the  total  available  supply  of 
labor  power  we  must  decrease  the  world's  population.  Neither 
increases  nor  decreases  in  population  can  be  accompHshed 
quickly.  The  labor  supply  has  other  interests  than  work. 
It  is  produced  in  response  to  other  than  economic  motives. 
1  See  Chapter  III  for  discussion  of  the  unemployed. 


THE  LABOR   SUPPLY  II 

It  comes  into  existence  through  human  reasons,  not  for  market 
demands.  It  does  not  increase  or  decrease  at  man's  quick 
word.  It  takes  years  to  bring  the  babe  to  the  age  of  economic 
labors,  and  he  must  be  fed  whether  his  labor  is  needed  or  not. 
Only  war,  famine,  or  pestilence  can  rapidly  reduce  the  labor 
supply,  and  even  the  worst  war  in  history  has  not  produced  a 
large  diminution.  Its  chief  effect  is  a  disturbance  of  the  rela- 
tive density  of  population  in  different  countries ;  a  considerable 
destruction  of  adult  workers,  and  the  development  of  a  large 
number  of  semi-skilled,  highly  specialized  women  workers  to 
take  the  place  of  many  of  the  skilled  men  who  have  died. 

The  war  caused  thousands  of  men  who  were  habitually 
unemployed  to  go  to  work.  Some  of  these  were  rich  men,  some 
loafers,  some  elderly  men  who  had  retired  from  active  work. 
It  brought  hundreds  of  thousands  of  women  who  had  never 
worked  for  wages  into  industry.  It  compelled  boys  and  girls 
to  work  in  much  larger  numbers,  especially  during  the  school 
vacations.  But  this  large  and  rapid  shifting  of  persons  from 
the  unemployed  to  the  employed  class  was  abnormal  and  tem- 
porary. It  could  not  have  occurred  in  peace  times.  It  was 
in  violation  of  the  standards  of  life  that  ordinarily  obtain.  It 
was  an  emergency  measure  to  relieve  shortage  of  labor  endanger- 
ing the  very  existence  of  the  nation.  The  suction  which  drew 
these  persons  into  industry  was  not  the  need  for  an  increased 
labor  supply  but  the  necessity  for  fiUing  millions  of  jobs  made 
vacant  by  men  withdrawn  for  mihtary  and  naval  service. 
They  entered  industry  to  restore  the  labor  supply  rather  than 
to  increase  it. 

Hornell  Hart  has  gathered  some  interesting  data  on  the 
American  labor  reserve.  He  found  that  from  one  miUion  to 
six  million  workers  were  idle  in  the  United  States  at  all  times 
between  1902  and  1917,  exclusive  of  farm  laborers.^ 

"The  least  unemployment,"  he  says,  "occurred  in  1906-07  and  in 
1916-17,  while  the  most  occurred  in  1908  and  in  1914  and  191 5.  The 
average  number  unemployed  has  been  two  and  a  half  million  workers, 

'  "Fluctuations  in  Unemployment  in  Cities  of  the  United  States,  1902  to  1917," 
Vol.  I,  No.  2,  of  Helen  S.  Trounstine  Foundation,  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  pp.  51-52. 


12  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

or  hardly  ten  per  cent  of  the  active  supply.  It  will  be  noted  .  .  . 
that  in;igo7  and  191 7,  the  demand  for  labor  exceeded  the  normal 
supply,  and  .  .  .  additional  workers  were  called  in,  as  indicated  by  the 
bumps  in  the  supply  line  in  these  years.  Even  at  these  times,  however, 
unemployment  is  shown.  The  reason  is  this :  Urban  industries  require 
a  working  labor-margin  of  at  least  four  or  five  per  cent,  or  a  million  to 
a  million  and  a  half  workers.  These  are  the  men  and  women  who, 
though  normally  employed,  are  temporarily  not  working  because  of 
sickness,  seasonal  fluctuations  in  their  trades,  changing  from  one  posi- 
tion to  another,  strikes,  shortage  of  material  or  transportation  facil- 
ities, and  so  forth.  Hence  we  have  the  paradox  of  a  million  and  a 
quarter  unemployed  at  the  same  time  with  an  unprecedented  demand 
for  labor." 

Another  valuable  set  of  figures  is  found  in  the  weekly  reports 
of  the  Ohio  free  labor  exchanges.  Ohio  has  had  public  employ- 
ment offices  in  twenty-two  cities  since  early  in  the  war  period. 
Their  weekly  reports  show  that  in  191 7-18,  though  the  with- 
drawal of  men  for  military  service,  a  reduction  of  net  immigra- 
tion to  about  20  per  cent  of  what  it  was  before  the  war,  and 
the  strong  demands  of  war  industries  for  men  combined  to 
create  an  acute  labor  shortage,  there  were  idle  men  at  all 
times.  Even  in  the  months  just  before  the  armistice,  when  tens 
of  thousands  of  workmen  were  needed,  there  was  a  labor  reserv^e. 

The  reports  of  the  public  employment  offices  in  other  states 
show  the  same  fact.  The  Monthly  Bulletins  of  the  New  York 
Department  of  Labor  on  "The  Labor  Market"  show  requests 
by  employers  for  a  much  larger  number  of  men  than  apphed 
at  the  offices  for  work  during  1918 ;  but  they  also  show  that  the 
number  of  men  sent  to  employers  by  the  offices  was  smaller  than 
the  number  of  men  who  applied  for  work.  In  other  words, 
after  as  many  as  possible  of  the  apphcants  for  work  were  given 
positions  with  employers,  there  was  still  left  a  group  of  workers 
who  were  not  placed.  The  total  for  the  year  shows  that  the 
employers  called  for  779,972  men ;  that  443,782  workers  applied 
for  employment,  and  that  283,640  were  actually  placed.  This 
leaves  a  surplus  of  160,142  applicants  who  could  not  find  work 
from  the  employment  offices  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  employers 


THE  LABOR   SUPPLY  1 3 

requested  approximately  500,000  more  men  and  women  from  the 
ofi5ces  than  they  obtained.  The  figures  for  1917  and  1916  show 
a  sHght  surplus  of  offers  for  employment  over  the  number  of 
applicants  seeking  employment.  But  in  each  year  the  number 
of  persons  placed  in  employment  was  considerably  smaller  than 
the  number  who  applied  for  work.^ 

We  do  not  wish  to  be  misunderstood.  We  are  pointing  out  that 
no  matter  how  strong  the  demand  for  workers,  some  are  never- 
theless out  of  work.  Some  of  these  will  not  work ;  some  cannot 
fit  into  the  jobs  that  are  open ;  some  are  out  of  touch  with 
the  opportunities  of  employment ;  some  are  persons  who  are 
continually  passing  through  jobs  rather  than  into  them.  The 
New  York  report  just  cited  reveals  that  even  when  employers 
were  calling  for  many  more  men  than  were  seeking  employment, 
there  were  more  persons  in  some  occupations  seeking  work 
than  there  were  openings  for  them. 

The  person  whose  eyes  were  open  during  the  summer  of  191 7 
and  of  1918  would  not  need  statistics  to  prove  that  this  was  so. 
What  city  could  you  enter  without  finding  men  loafing  around 
saloons,  pool  halls,  or  employment  offices?  The  very  fact 
that  there  was  a  strong  demand  for  labor  at  high  wages  only 
made  some  classes  of  labor  the  more  irregular.  Many,  on  the 
other  hand,  could  not  fit  into  the  actual  jobs  offered.  Some 
were  tied  down  by  family  responsibilities  that  made  it  impossible 
for  them  to  go  to  the  places  where  labor  was  needed. 

3.  Decentralization  of  the  Labor  Reserve 

One  reason  for  persistent  labor  surpluses  is  the  decentralized 
character  of  our  labor  reserve.-  The  typical  character  of  the 
American  labor  supply  has  been  that  we  have  not  had  a  labor 
reserve  but  thousands  of  labor  reserves,  a  decentralized  labor 
supply.     Each  city  has  had  a  midtitiide  oj  groups  of  laborers. 

I  The  Labor  Market  in  December  igi8,  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  p.  5. 

*Cf.  "A  Federal  Labor  Reserve  Board,"  Wm.  M.  Leiscrson,  Uniled  Slates 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  220,  p.  ss,  for  an  able  comparison  in  this  respect 
of  the  money  market  and  the  labor  market;  "Unemployment  a  Problem  of 
Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chap.  5. 


14  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

Every  morning  saw  ten  men  at  this  factory  gate,  a  hundred  at 
that;  saw  carpenters,  laborers,  clerks,  stenographers,  sales- 
men, factory  hands,  peddling  their  labor  at  one  business  place 
or  another.  Each  town,  each  large  estabUshment  was  the  center 
of  a  permanent  labor  reserve,  composed  in  part  of  changing 
individuals  but  always  there. 

The  American  employer  has  been  able  to  assume  as  a  matter 
of  course  that  there  would  be  idle  men  at  his  gate  this  morning, 
to-morrow  morning,  every  morning.  He  has  accepted  orders 
upon  the  security  of  that  expectation.  If  the  reserve  at  his 
place  of  business  or  in  the  immediate  locality  disappeared,  he 
complained  of  a  labor  shortage.  In  his  mind,  consciously  or 
unconsciously,  was  an  idea  that  he  was  entitled  to  have  available 
at  all  times  enough  labor  to  man  his  plant  to  maximum  capacity, 
even  though  he  did  not  run  at  maximum  capacity  thirty  days 
in  the  year.  He  expected  that  those  who  did  his  hiring  for  him 
would  be  able  to  select  from  an  assembled  group  the  man  best 
suited  to  do  his  work ;  and  that  laborers  would  compete  with 
each  other  for  the  jobs  he  offered,  thereby  keeping  his  wage 
costs  down. 

It  is  not  strange  that  a  policy  of  dependence  on  an  ever  present 
labor  reserve  should  have  developed  in  America.  Immigration 
provided  a  supply  of  men  to  replenish  continually  local  labor 
reserves,  and  employers  found  it  easier  to  attract  plenty  of 
labor  to  each  locality  so  that  they  could  have  it  when  they 
needed  it  than  to  provide  labor  market  machinery  that  would 
find  labor  when  it  was  needed.^  There  was  no  organized 
system  of  labor  distribution  to  which  the  employer  could  turn 
for  labor,  and  he  was  so  accustomed  to  depending  upon  mis- 
cellaneous means  to  attract  labor  to  his  plant,  that  he  did  not 
realize  that  there  could  be  an  organized  labor  market.  It  did 
not  occur  to  him  that  a  centralization  of  the  labor  supply  with 
machinery  which  would  provide  him  with  labor  when  he  needed 

'  "Two  years  ago  a  manager  of  major  rank  in  a  great  Philadelphia  plant  told  me : 
'We  are  not  interested  in  problems  of  personnel.  We  have  a  lot  of  work,  but  there 
are  always  more  fjeople  to  do  it  than  there  is  work ;  and  if  those  we  have  do  not 
wish  to  work  under  our  conditions,  they  can  go.  and  we  will  go  out  and  get  others.'" 
—  E.  M.  Hopkins,  President,  Dartmouth  College,  Tlie  Annals,  May,  1917,  p.  3. 


THE   LABOR   SUPPLY  1 5 

it  and  draw  oflf  his  surplus  during  his  dull  seasons  was  an  impor- 
tant need  of  the  nation.  He  knew  that  banks  enabled  employ- 
ers to  carry  on  the  nation's  business  on  a  smaller  amount  of 
capital  than  would  be  required  if  each  employer  carried  his  own 
capital  reserve,  but  he  did  not  reaUze  that  an  organized  labor 
market  would  enable  him  and  his  fellow  employers  to  carry  on 
production  with  a  much  smaller  idle  labor  force. 

The  situation  was  one  in  which  the  forces  operated  in  a  circle. 
Immigration  provided  a  multitude  of  laborers  to  furnish  the 
local  labor  reserves.  Excessive  labor  turnover  led  the  employer 
to  believe  that  there  was  a  labor  shortage  even  when  there  were 
many  idle  men.  The  lack  of  any  organized  labor  market  made 
him  depend  on  the  local  reserves,  and  the  presence  of  the 
local  reserves  prevented  a  consciousness  of  the  need  for  an 
organized  market.  It  is  not  difficult  to  understand  why  he 
was  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  the  reserve  and  favored 
unrestricted  immigration. 

The  vigorous  local  calls  for  men  which  we  find  periodically 
in  big  headlines  on  the  first  pages  of  American  newspapers 
are  part  of  the  process  of  accumulating  local  labor  reserves. 
The  reluctance  of  many  employers  and  newspapers  to  admit 
the  presence  of  unemployment  is  due  to  the  same  cause.  In  the 
winter  of  1915-16,  when  unemployment  was  rife  in  most  Amer- 
ican cities,  the  writer  was  in  a  large  middle  west  city  where 
conditions  were  no  better  than  in  other  places,  but  where  the 
employers'  association  and  the  newspapers  refused  to  admit 
that  work  was  slack.  They  maintained  that  exceptional  pros- 
perity, as  compared  with  other  cities,  obtained  in  the  community. 
The  result  was  such  an  inflow  of  men  from  neighboring  states 
that  public  school  buildings  had  to  be  opened  for  idle  men  to 
sleep  in.  In  order  to  insure  their  comfort  each  man  was  fur- 
nished with  a  newspaper  to  sleep  on.  One  who  wishes  to  under- 
stand the  bitterness  of  many  workmen  toward  the  more  well-to- 
do  classes  should  stop  to  imagine  the  state  of  mind  of  these 
men,  some  of  whom  had  come  several  hundred  miles  to  a  badly 
overcrowded  labor  market,  because  of  false  representation  of 
the  industrial  situation  in  the  newspapers. 


l6  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

The  time  has  now  come  in  our  national  development  when 
employers  must  realize  that  the  maintenance  of  these  local 
labor  reserves  is  unsound  economic  and  social  policy.  In  the 
past  most  of  our  businesses  have  operated  on  the  theory  of  short- 
time  employment  of  labor  without  responsibility  resting  on  the 
employer  for  what  occurs  in  the  Hfe  of  the  laborer  after  he  has 
passed  out  of  the  individual  employer's  service.  They  have 
expected  a  large  portion  of  their  labor  force  to  leave  after  a 
short  employment ;  and  they  have  expected,  on  the  other  hand, 
to  discharge  many  of  their  workers,  after  a  short  period  of 
service.  They  have  expected  labor  to  be  available  (just  like 
land,  buildings,  and  machinery)  whenever  they  wished  to  speed 
up  production,  and  they  gave  little  thought  to  what  became  of 
it  in  the  interval  before  it  was  needed  again. 

The  time  for  such  iiidiference  has  passed.  American  employers 
and  the  American  government  are  being  held  responsible  in 
the  minds  of  the  workers  for  the  hardships  from  which  they 
suffer  through  irregular  employment.  Unless  those  who  control 
our  industrial  policies  accept  responsibility  for  those  hardships, 
and  recognize  that  the  worker^s  relation  to  production  is  and  must 
be  different  from  that  of  the  raw  material  or  the  machine,  we  will 
have  to  face,  sooner  or  later,  a  demand  for  a  social  and  economic 
system  that  will  concern  itself.  The  maintenance  of  a  labor 
reserve  for  each  establishment,  or  at  least  in  each  locality,  that 
is  adequate  to  meet  the  employers'  needs  at  times  of  normal 
maximum  production,  but  is  idle  much  of  the  year,  is  one  of 
the  principal  causes  of  industrial  unrest  and  bitterness.  We 
recognize  fully  that  many  workers  are  idle  through  their  own 
fault,  but  that  fact  does  not  excuse  the  policy  of  decentralized 
labor  reserves. 

Immigration  has  played  an  important  part  in  this  matter 
by  providing  human  material  for  the  labor  reserves.  But 
these  surpluses  are  not  entirely  due  to  immigration.  It  is 
debatable  whether  immigration  can  be  held  chiefly  responsible. 
Reserves  have  developed  in  England  as  well  as  in  America. 
They  are  largely  due  to  the  unorganized  labor  market  and  to 
fluctuations  of  production. 


THE  LABOR   SUPPLY  1 7 

"An  excess  of  labor  over  the  demand  appears  to  be  a  normal 
condition  in  the  skilled  and  organized  trades,"  says  Mr.  Beveridge^ 
(the  leading  British  authority  on  employment).  "It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  argue  at  length  that  the  same  condition  is  found  in  the 
unskilled  and  unorganized  occupations.  The  glut  of  labor  in  them 
is  notorious.  Has  there  ever,  in  the  big  towns  at  least,  been  a  time 
when  employers  could  not  get  practically  at  a  moment's  notice  all  the 
laborers  they  required?" 

Other  English  investigators  have  reached  the  same  con- 
clusion : 

"...  About  each  trade  there  tends  to  accumulate  a  pool  of  labor 
large  enough  to  satisfy  the  highest  potential  demand  of  that  industry, 
and  the  sum  of  all  these  pools  forms  a  'reserve  army,'  a  great  con- 
venience for  the  employer,  who  can  draw  upon  it  at  need  and  feels  no 
responsibility  for  its  maintenance  whUe  on  reserve.  .  .  .  'The  army 
of  men  and  women  standing  at  his  beck  and  call  cost  him  nothing 
except  for  the  actual  hours  that  they  were  at  work.  And  the  very 
existence  of  such  a  "  reserve  army  "  places  each  member  of  it  more 
completely  at  his  mercy  with  regard  to  aU  the  conditions  of  employ- 
ment.'" 2 

Similar  conditions  can  be  found  in  America  in  localities  and 
industries  but  little  affected  by  immigration.  The  southern 
cotton  mill  situation  is  a  striking  illustration.  Here  the  labor 
force  consists  of  native-born  whites.  Immigration,  at  least 
up  to  1909,  did  not  furnish  the  labor  supply.  The  mill  laborers 
were  obtained  from  agricultural  districts  or  from  the  moun- 
tains. The  companies  distribute  their  work  among  a  much 
larger  number  of  "hands"  than  can  ever  be  employed  at  one 
time  and  there  is  such  a  large  labor  surplus  that  the  employees 
are  loud  in  their  complaint  that  they  are  "sent  out  to  rest" 
when  they  are  both  able  and  willing  to  work.  "It  is  a  vicious 
circle,"  says  a  federal  report.  "There  are  too  many  hands  be- 
cause the  people  work  irregularly.  The  people  work  irregularly 
because  there  are  too  many  hands."  '    At  Fall  River,  where  the 

'"Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  pp.  69-70. 
*  Seasonal  Trades,  igi2,  edited  by  Sidney  Webb,  pp.  6-7. 
'  Report  on  Woman  and  Child  Wage  Earners,  Senate  Document  No.  645,  6i3t 
Congress,  Vol.  16,  p.  155. 
c 


1 8  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

labor  force  is  largely  composed  of  immigrants  from  Europe, 
the  situation  is  almost  identical. 

The  migratory  laborers  who  meet  the  needs  of  certain  seasonal 
industries  constitute  a  special  type  in  the  labor  reserve.  Prob- 
ably no  country  in  the  world  has  such  a  proportion  of  travelers 
among  its  workers.  Thousands  of  young  men  from  our  farms, 
country  towns,  and  cities  are  caught  in  the  whirl  of  industry, 
—  many  of  them  to  spend  their  lives  whirUng  from  place  to 
place,  industry  to  industry,  and  job  to  job.  Unable  to  get 
steady  employment  when  they  first  go  to  the  city,  or  not  liking 
the  work  they  get,  or  fascinated  by  the  opportunities  that  they 
hear  exist  in  distant  places,  or  caught  by  the  wanderlust,  they 
start  on  the  road  to  wander  —  nowhere.  Many  of  the  immi- 
grants, free  to  wander,  drift  into  the  same  habit.  Having  come 
four  or  five  thousand  miles,  another  thousand  does  not  matter. 
Dependent  on  employers'  emissaries  and  employment  agencies 
for  work,  they  have  to  go  where  they  are  sent.  The  fluctuating 
demands  of  railways,  contracting,  lumbering,  mining,  harvest- 
ing, manufacturing  call  for  men,  now  here,  now  there. 

No  one  knows  how  many  there  are  of  these  migrants;  some 
estimate  that  we  have  hundreds  of  thousands ;  some,  more  than 
a  milHon.  We  only  know  that  every  labor  center  has  a  host  of 
employment  ofl&ces,  lodging  houses,  saloons,  pawnshops,  second- 
hand stores,  vice  and  gambhng  dens,  and  often  corrupt  pohce 
officials  that  prey  upon  them  and  depend  upon  them  for  their 
sustenance.* 

4.  Labor  Turnover 

The  ever  present  labor  reserve  encourages  excessive  labor 
turnover.  Employers  can  be  careless  about  their  labor  because 
they  can  easily  get  more.  Workers  can  lightly  "throw  up  their 
jobs"  because  many  others  are  doing  the  same  thing  and  they 

»See  references  under  "Migratory  labor"  in  index,  also  Chapter  XIII.  Cf. 
"A  Clearing  House  for  Labor,"  D.  D.  Lescohier,  Atlantic  Monthly,  ]nne,  1918; 
"The  Employment  Service  as  a  Means  of  Public  Education,"  D.  D.  Lescohier, 
Industrial  Management,  April,  1919;  "The  Psychology  of  Floating  Workers," 
P.  A.  Speek,  The  Annals,  January,  191 7;  "One  Thousand  Homeless  Men," 
Alice  Solenberger. 


THE  LABOR   SUPPLY  19 

can  therefore  secure  other  employment.  For  this,  and  many 
other  reasons,  labor  passes  through  our  industries  rather  than 
into  them.^  A  relatively  small  number  of  progressive  employers 
have  inaugurated  labor  policies  which  hold  fairly  stable  forces 
in  their  establishments,  but  most  employers  are  clamoring  for 
more  men  while  they  let  those  they  have  slip  through  their 
fingers.  The  workers,  for  their  part,  are  also  at  fault.  Many 
quit  jobs  at  the  shghtest  provocation  or  for  the  mere  sake  of 
change,  without  any  knowledge  of  where  they  will  again  secure 
employment. 

5.   Unorganized  Labor  Distribution 

We  have  already  suggested,  in  the  discussion  of  the  decen- 
tralized labor  reserve,  that  one  of  the  principal  reasons  why 
unfilled  labor  demands  and  idle  workers  coexist  in  the  labor 
market  is  the  nation's  lack  of  any  market  machinery  competent 
to  bring  our  employers  and  our  workers  together.  The  same 
lack  of  policy  which  permits  us  to  receive  from  Europe  any 
amount  of  labor  which  may  happen  to  come,  without  regard 
to  the  chances  of  giving  it  all  employment,  is  found  in  our 
domestic  labor  distribution.  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  or  New 
England  may  be  swarming  with  men,  and  Illinois  or  Missouri 
short,  but  we  have  no  social  machinery  which  can  accurately 
shift  the  labor  surplus  of  certain  localities  into  the  labor  deficit 
of  the  other  localities.  The  workers  have  to  depend  upon 
rumor  or  private  employment  agents  to  direct  them  to  the  work ; 
while  employers  naturally  resort  to  the  accumulation  of  local 
surpluses  to  safeguard  the  productive  capacity  of  their  establish- 
ments. The  crude  efforts  which  have  been  made  thus  far  to 
provide  public  employment  exchanges  have  hardly  scratched 
the  needs  of  the  situation.  Even  during  the  war  we  had  no 
labor  market  which  could  be  compared  with  our  cotton,  butter, 
or  copper  markets.  Previous  to  the  war  we  had  not  evolved 
machinery  for  efl&ciently  mobilizing,  distributing,  or  placing 
labor.     We  had  put  the  best  brains  in  the  nation  to  work  on  the 

'  Cf.  Chapter  IV  for  detailed  discussion.  Consult  index  for  other  data  scattered 
through  other  chapters. 


20  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

solution  of  capital,  transportation,  commodity,  and  credit 
problems;  but  had  practically  ignored  the  employment  prob- 
lem. The  war,  with  its  check  on  immigration  and  its  with- 
drawal of  labor  for  military  service,  artificially  reduced  the 
supply  of  labor  and  suddenly  directed  attention  to  the  nation's 
need  for  machinery  of  labor  mobilization  and  distribution. 
It  made  the  nation  conscious,  as  a  thoughtful  few  were  conscious 
before  the  war,  that  we  had  no  labor  market  and  needed  one. 

The  United  States  Employment  Service  was  the  answer  to  a 
war-time  crisis  produced  by  ineffective  labor  distribution.  But 
this  employment  service  was  not  a  true  organization  of  the  labor 
market  since  a  host  of  competing  agencies  kept  labor  mobiliza- 
tion and  distribution  in  a  state  of  chaos.  Neither  was  it  created 
to  serve  the  employment  needs  of  employers  and  employees, 
but  rather  to  serve  the  military  necessities  of  the  government. 
It  accepted  the  business  of  employers  in  non-war  industries, 
but  its  main  duty  was  to  mobilize  labor  for  war  industries.  It 
was  not  established  to  help  solve  the  nation's  employment  or 
unemployment  problem,  but  to  facilitate  the  transfer  of  labor 
from  industries  not  essential  in  war  time  to  so-called  "essential" 
industries.  It  was  a  piece  of  war  machinery  with  a  war  func- 
tion rather  than  a  piece  of  industrial  machinery  with  an  indus- 
trial function.  Every  person  who  realized  America's  need  for 
an  organized  labor  market  hoped  that  the  United  States  Employ- 
ment Service  would  be  developed  into  a  permanent  system  of 
control  over  the  employment  market,  and  that  all  other  agen- 
cies would  be  discontinued.  But  that  consummation  was  not 
attained  during  the  war,  and  at  the  present  time  the  failure  of 
Congress  to  appropriate  funds  for  the  Service  leaves  the  country 
in  a  situation  almost  as  bad  as  before  the  war. 


CHAPTER   11 
THE   DEMAND  FOR  LABOR 

^^  There  is  one  essential  fact  with  respect  to  the  demand  for  . 
labor  which  must  never  be  forgotten.  It  is  the  fundamental 
fact.  Neglect  of  it  has  caused  much  unsound  thinking.  It  is 
the  simple  fact  that  America's  labor  demand  consists  of  millions 
of  specific,  individual  demands  for  specific  types  and  qualities 
of  labor  to  work  in  specified  establishments  for  more  or  less 
definite  periods  of  time.  It  is  a  composite  of  multitudinous 
individual  demands  emanating  from  individual  concerns.  Each 
demand  for  labor  is  individual  as  to  employer,  place,  type  of 
labor  sought,  wages  offered,  hours  to  be  worked,  conditions  of 
employment,  and  the  duration  of  the  work  offered.  The  labor 
demand  is  decentralized.  This  is  one  reason  for  the  decentralized" 
labor  supply.  The  demand  comes  from  every  sort  of  employer 
in  every  sort  of  place  for  every  sort  of  workman.  It  comes 
from  governments,  corporations,  partnerships,  and  individual 
employers;  from  cities,  towns,  camps,  and  farms;  from  fac- 
tories and  mines;  banks,  stores,  and  ofiices;  railroads  and 
steamship  lines ;  and  from  a  host  of  small  workshops,  contrac- 
tors, and  personal  service  establishments.  When  an  employer 
wants  a  bricklayer  it  does  not  help  him  to  have  a  carpenter 
applying  for  work ;  when  he  needs  a  dairy  hand  he  cannot  get 
along  with  a  tile  ditcher.  The  demand  at  any  one  time  is  a 
demand  for  steady,  seasonal,  short-time,  and  casual  workers ; 
for  mechanics,  ofiice  help,  skilled  operatives,  semi-skilled,  shghtly 
skilled,  and  unskilled  laborers.  The  seasons  of  maximum  and 
minimum  demand  in  some  industries  dupUcate,  in  some  overlap, 
in  some  dovetail. 

One  of  the  most  important  problems  which  confronts  our  nation 
is  the  creation  of  means  for  feeding  a  decentralized  demand  for 


22  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

labor  info  a  centralized  organization  able  to  locate  the  individual 
workman  suited  to  each  individual  demaitd,  and  bring  the  two 
together  with  the  least  disturbance  to  industry  and  to  the  home 
Ufe  of  the  worker.  It  is  not  a  problem  of  massing  orders  and 
mobilizing  men  so  often  as  it  is  a  problem  of  discriminating- 
selection  of  the  man  who  meets  an  employer's  need  and  the 
employer  who  meets  a  man's  need. 

I.  Rise  and  Decline  of  Industries  and  Occupations 

The  1 910  census  shows  a  rapid  expansion  of  American  in- 
dustry in  the  decade  from  1899  to  1909.  Our  population  in- 
creased 15,977,691  (21  per  cent).  The  number  of  farms  in- 
creased 624,130  (10  per  cent),  farm  acreage,  40,206,551  acres 
(4.8  per  cent),  and  improved  farm  lands  63,953,263  (15.4  per 
cent)  acres. ^  But  this  expansion  of  agricultural  population 
and  acreage  was  eclipsed  by  the  growth  in  our  urban  industries. 
The  number  of  manufacturing  estabhshments  (excluding  hand 
and  neighborhood  industries)  increased  from  207,514  in  1899 
to  268,491  in  1909;  the  number  of  factory  wage  earners  from 
4,712,763  to  6,615,046  and  the  factory  wage  bill  from  $2,008,- 
361,119  to  $3,427,037,884.2  This  is  an  increase  of  29.4  per  cent 
in  the  number  of  factories :  of  40.4  per  cent  in  the  number  of 
wage  earners  employed ;  and  of  70  per  cent  in  the  employers' 
wage  bill.  Our  railway,  street  railway,  public  utility,  mercan- 
tile, banking,  and  other  industries  supplementary  to  agriculture 
and  manufactures  experienced  similar  expansion.  They  were 
years  of  rapid  development,  broken  only  by  the  sUght  depression 
of  1904  and  the  panic  of  1907-08. 

The  reader  of  the  census  who  finds  an  increase  of  2 1  per  cent 
in  our  population  during  the  decade  and  an  increase  of  40.4  per 
cent  in  the  number  of  factory  wage  earners  is  apt  to  conclude 
at  once  that  here  is  conclusive  evidence  that  any  able-bodied 
man  who  was  idle  during  this  decade  was  loafing.  But  a  more 
careful  analysis  of  the  census  reveals  that  the  totals  quoted  are 
but  an  average  of  changes  which  occurred  in  a  multitude  of  indus- 

1  United  States  Census,  igio,  Vol.  V,  p.  28.         » Ibid.,  Vol.  VUI,  pp.  40-43. 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  23 

tries,  each  of  which  had  a  different  experience.  Some  increased 
marvelously,  some  slowly,  some  decreased,  some  died  out. 
The  number  of  wage  earners  in  automobile  factories  increased 
3278.9  per  cent,  but  the  number  in  roofing  material  establish- 
ments decreased  67.5  per  cent.  The  number  manufacturing 
steel  doors  and  shutters  increased  1268.4  per  cent,  but  the 
number  making  paving  materials  decreased  41.7  per  cent. 
Wage  earners  increased  55.1  per  cent  in  cottonseed  oil  prod- 
ucts and  265.7  per  cent  in  beet  sugar  factories,  but  decreased 
44.1  per  cent  in  oleomargarine  factories,  and  19.7  per  cent  in 
glucose  and  starch  works.  Further  analysis  shows  that  even 
such  contrasts  as  these  do  not  tell  the  story.  Certain  indus- 
tries, such  as  the  manufacture  of  carriages  and  wagons,  corsets, 
miscellaneous  oils,  turpentine,  and  house  furnishing  goods, 
decreased  their  force  between  1899  and  1904  and  then  increased 
again  between  1904  and  1909.  Others,  such  as  shipbuilding, 
cooperage,  rice  cleaning,  the  manufacture  of  rubber  boots, 
wirework  and  cables,  and  malt  liquors,  increased  up  to  1904 
and  decreased  during  the  last  half  of  the  decade.  The  census 
tables  show  that  seventy-one  industries  decreased  their  labor 
force  during  the  decade.  In  twenty-one  cases  the  reduction 
was  large. 

The  war  caused  striking  changes  in  the  prosperity  of  industries 
and  their  resultant  demands  for  labor.  The  manufacture  of 
spirituous  liquors,  which  increased  its  labor  force  72.8  per  cent 
between  1899  and  1909,  showing  a  growth  throughout  the  decade, 
was  suddenly  stopped  entirely  by  a  governmental  order.  Ship- 
building, in  which  employment  decreased  13.4  per  cent  from 
1899  to  1909,  was  given  a  stimulus  which  caused  the  industry 
to  increase  its  employees  by  tens  of  thousands. 

The  Food  Administration  requirement  that  we  decrease  our 
sugar  consumption  enabled  the  corn  sirup  industry  to  expand 
rapidly.  When  the  Food  Administration's  regulation  of  sugar 
consumption  ended,  the  sirup  manufacturers  necessarily  suf- 
fered a  sharp  reduction  of  sales,  compelling  reductions  in  their 
labor  force.  The  war  brought  repression  to  many  a  non-essen- 
tial industry,  such  as  ice  cream  and  confectionery  manufactures, 


24  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

pool  rooms,  and  importing  companies ;  while  stimulus  came  to 
all  businesses  fortunate  in  their  adaptabihty  to  war  needs.  Iron 
and  copper  mining,  steel  manufactures,  typewriter  manufactur- 
ing, dye  making,  saddlery  and  harness  making,  cheese  and 
condensed  milk  manufactures,  the  cloth  industries,  and  a  host 
of  others  steadily  increased  their  output  under  the  pressure 
of  the  war  demand. 

The  end  of  the  war  cut  the  abnormal  demands  for  certain 
products  to  a  fraction  of  their  war-time  volume  and  terminated 
the  demands  for  other  products  entirely.  Loss  of  markets 
caused  thousands  of  concerns  to  discharge  part  of  their  work- 
men. Machinery  had  in  many  cases  to  be  rebuilt  and  orders 
for  different  products  obtained  before  production  could  be 
resumed.  No  governmental  regulations  of  the  process  of  shift- 
ing from  a  war  basis  to  a  peace  basis  could  do  more  than  mitigate 
the  hardships  of  the  change.  Shipbuilding  (on  its  war-time 
scale)  became  as  unnecessary  in  a  world  at  peace  as  it  was  neces- 
sary in  a  world  at  war.  Aeroplane,  munition,  and  other  sorts 
of  war  manufacturing  had  to  stop  or  be  cut  to  a  mere  fraction 
of  war-time  output.  Laborers  had  to  shift  both  to  other  indus- 
tries and  to  other  localities,^  while  more  than  a  milHon  discharged 
soldiers  were  thrown  upon  the  employment  market  during  the 
four  months  when  employment  was  most  slack,  December, 
1918,  to  March,  1919. 

2.   Fluctuations  of  Labor  Dem.a.nd  Due  to  Changes 
WITHIN  Industry 

On  the  whole,  the  period  from  1900  to  19 18  was  a  period  of 
industrial  expansion.  During  the  whole  period,  both  in  peace 
and  in  war,  some  industries  and  establishments  failed  to  par- 
ticipate in  the  general  prosperity.     Social  forces  in  some  cases, 

1  The  metropolitan  dailies  and  many  of  the  papers  in  the  smaller  cities  aboimd 
with  evidence  of  the  labor  disturbance  immediately  after  the  termination  of  the 
war.  The  Chicago  Tribune,  particularly  in  December,  igiS,  and  January,  igig, 
is  rich  in  concrete  facts,  while  the  Madison,  Wisconsin,  State  Journal  gives  typical 
descriptions  of  conditions  in  the  smaller  cities  during  the  same  period.  The  Jan- 
uary, 1919,  numbers  of  the  United  States  Employment  Service  Bulletin  give  a  more 
comprehensive  idea  of  the  unemployment  situation  in  the  country. 


THE   DEMAND    FOR   LABOR  25 

individual  failure   in  other  cases,  were   forcing  concerns  into 
bankruptcy  or  decline.^ 

Changes  in  social  customs  produce  many  of  the  vicissitudes 
of  business.  The  bicycle  created  in  a  decade  a  new  industry 
which  the  automobile  nearly  wiped  out  in  the  next  decade, 
and  no  one  can  foretell  what  changes  in  social  habits  and  in 
the  demands  for  labor  will  follow  the  perfection  of  air  travel. 
The  New  York  Commission  on  Unemployment  -  discovered 
a  rapid  decline  in  saddlery  and  harness  making  due  to  the 
automobile ;  a  decline  in  lumber-  and  brick-producing  industries 
since  steel  and  concrete  have  become  popular  building  materials, 
and  a  decUne  in  suspender  manufactures  since  "the  college 
students  have  declared  against  wearing  suspenders"  and  resorted 
to  the  belt.  The  soft-collared  shirt  has  sharply  reduced  the 
demand  for  linen  collars.  The  increasing  favor  enjoyed  by 
ready  made  clothes  has  already  effected  profound  changes  in 
the  clothing  industries.  All  of  the  cheaper  Unes  of  goods 
are  rapidly  passing  into  the  control  of  the  factory  industry, 
and  the  custom  shops  are  being  more  and  more  restricted  to 
high-class,  exclusive  products.  So  severe  is  the  competition, 
that  small  custom  shops  are  finding  it  impossible  to  exist.^ 

Changes  in  the  proportion  of  capital  and  labor  used  constitute 
another  factor  modifying  the  demand  for  labor.  The  census 
reveals  case  after  case  in  all  parts  of  the  country  where  an  in- 
crease in  the  value  of  machinery,  tools,  and  implements  em- 
ployed in  an  industry  is  accompanied  by  a  decrease  in  the  num- 
ber of  wage  earners  and  of  the  employers'  wage  bill.  For 
instance,  there  were  nine  industries  in  New  York  state  that 
increased  their  capital  and  decreased  their  employees  between 

1  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment  of  the  State  of  New 
York,  191 1,  Third  Report,  p.  157.  Summaries  of  653  employers'  replies  to  questions 
of  the  Commission  give  interesting  data  on  the  causes  of  fluctuation  in  labor  demand. 
Two  hundred  and  forty-five  attributed  it  to  increase  or  decrease  of  orders;  168  to 
seasons ;  69  to  busy  or  dull  times  in  the  trade ;  34  to  new  work ;  33  to  inventory 
and  repairs;  30  to  the  weather;  7  to  overproduction;  9  to  lack  of  help;  13  to 
changes  in  the  business;  16  to  employees'  personal  reasons  or  strikes;  and  15  to 
other  causes. 

*  Ihid.,  p.  45. 

'  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  igj,  p.  25. 


26  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

1900  and  1905/  and  ten  thai  increased  their  capital  and  decreased 
their  labor  force  between  1890  and  1900.  Men's  furnishing 
goods  increased  their  capital  17  per  cent  and  decreased  their 
labor  force  23  per  cent;  while  the  glove  and  mitten  industry 
increased  their  capital  17  per  cent  and  decreased  their  labor 
force  43  per  cent.  The  substitution  of  machinery  for  labor 
during  the  Civil  War,  both  in  manufactures  and  in  agriculture, 
changed  the  type  of  Arnerican  production.  During  the  World 
War  of  1914-18  this  process  was  again  stimulated  by  the  short- 
age and  high  cost  of  labor,  but  it  is  a  process  that  is  in  progress 
to  a  greater  or  less  extent  at  all  times. 

Sometimes  the  new  machines  and  processes  change  the  type 
of  labor  employed  rather  than  the  quantity.  Skilled  mechanics 
are  displaced  by  laborers,  men  by  women,  adults  by  children. 
In  the  metal-working  establishments  the  various  stamping, 
pressing,  and  cutting  machines  have  made  skill  unnecessary 
in  a  large  fraction  of  the  operations.  In  the  textile  mills,  the 
machinery  has  opened  many  occupations  to  children  which  were 
the  work  of  mechanics  in  earlier  times. 

In  other  cases  the  work  is  transferred  from  one  occupation 
to  another,  as  when  "stationary  engineers  are  thrown  out  of 
work  by  the  substitution  of  electricity  for  steam ;  carpenters 
and  other  wood  workers  suffer  as  wood  is  replaced  by  fireproof 
material";  and  teamsters  are  replaced  by  chauffeurs.  One 
class  of  labor  is  displaced  and  must  seek  a  new  occupation, 
while  another  class  has  an  increased  opportunity  of  employment. 
An  increase  in  the  total  number  of  persons  employed  does  not 
mean,  therefore,  that  no  labor  has  been  eliminated  from  an 
industry. 

Fortimately,  not  all  terminations  of  industries  or  occupations 
throw  men  into  idlenafcs.  It  sometimes  becomes  apparent 
to  the  workmen  in  a  certain  industry  that  it  is  in  a  decline. 
In  other  cases  they  foresee  that  a  certain  occupation  will  be- 
come obsolete  by  the  substitution  of  machinery  for  skill,  or  a 
change  in  the  kind  of  goods  demanded  by  consumers.     New 

1  Bureau  of  the  Census,  Bulleiin  5p,  Table  2.  (Cited  in  Tliird  Report,  New  York 
Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment,  pp.  46,  47.) 


t 

THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  27 

workmen  are  discouraged  from  entering,  and  forehanded  em- 
ployees begin  to  seek  new  avenues  of  employment.  To  illustrate 
with  one  case  out  of  many.  When  the  author  was  a  boy  his 
father,  a  mechanic,  predicted,  years  before  the  invention 
appeared  on  the  market,  that  sooner  or  later  the  stove  factories 
of  Detroit,  Michigan,  would  succeed  in  perfecting  a  machine 
to  do  their  metal  polishing.  Such  far-sighted  men  direct  appren- 
tices into  growing  rather  than  declining  trades.  But  the  sur- 
plus of  labor  ordinarily  available  enables  employers  to  keep  their 
places  filled,  even  when  such  changes  impend,  and  workmen 
almost  inevitably  suffer  unemployment  in  these  forward  steps 
of  industry. 

Business  failures  are  a  third  important  cause  of  labor  dis-'*->^ 
placement.     Thousands   of   concerns  go   into   bankruptcy,   or 
pay  their  debts  and  close  their  doors,  each  year.     In  bad  years 
the  number  increases,  but  every  year  witnesses  a  multitude  of 
failures  throughout  the  country. 

Reorganizations  have  a  similar  effect.  Plants  bought  up  \y 
by  competitors  are  frequently  dismantled  or  closed  down  and 
their  orders  transferred  to  other  plants.  The  changes  now 
proceeding  so  rapidly,  whereby  corporations  are  assuming 
control  of  a  larger  and  larger  fraction  of  our  business  activities, 
inevitably  cause  many  such  displacements  of  workmen,  some 
of  whom  have  been  long  with  their  employers.  Three  striking 
illustrations  that  came  under  the  writer's  personal  observation 
may  be  instanced :  A  boy  started  work  for  a  railroad  as  office 
boy.  In  seventeen  years  he  had  become  chief  auditor.  The 
road  was  absorbed  by  another  road,  and  its  entire  auditing 
department  then  became  unnecessary.  The  auditor  was 
discharged.  After  a  long  search  for  suitable  employment  he 
obtained  a  position  at  exactly  half  the  salary  he  had  been  earn- 
ing. A  very  intelligent  boy  entered  the  freight  office  of  a  rail- 
way. In  twenty-five  years  he  became  head  of  the  freight  solicit- 
ing department  in  an  important  area.  His  salary  was  S4200 
a  year.  The  government's  reorganization  of  the  road  during 
the  war  left  him  out  of  employcncnt.  A  shoe  cutter  was  twenty- 
seven  years  with  a  certain  factory.     It  was  the  only  occu- 


28  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

pation  he  had  ever  worked  at.  The  plant  was  purchased  by 
a  competitor  and  he  was  displaced  at  sixty-one  years  of  age. 
His  friends  found  employment  for  him  in  a  department  store 
as  freight  operator  at  $1.50  per  day. 

Reorganizations  within  establishments  in  the  interest  of 
economy  and  efficiency  frequently  work  the  same  results. 
-  Superfluous  workers  are  eliminated  and  jobs  consolidated  when- 
ever the  employer  sees  it  is  possible  to  reduce  costs.  This  is 
sound  business  policy,  but  it  is  a  persistent  cause  of  labor 
displacement,  and  creates  a  serious  responsibility  for  the  nation. 
The  worker  should  not  have  to  bear  the  cost  of  progress. 
Every  case  of  this  kind  arouses  bitter  criticisms  of  our  social 
order. 

Local  chang&s  in  the  demand  for  labor  are  often  produced 
by  industries  moving  from  one  locality  to  another. 

Each  year  many  concerns  move  to  other  towns  or  cities  to 
take  advantage  of  better  markets,  easier  access  to  raw  materials, 
better  railway  faciUties  or  other  business  advantages.  The 
New  York  Commission  on  Employment  showed  ^  that  eight 
of  the  sixteen  cities  containing  three  fourths  of  the  manufactur- 
ing industries  of  New  York  had  fewer  employees  in  1900  than 
in  1890,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  manufactures  of  the  state 
increased  12.9  per  cent  in  the  decade.  The  census  reveals 
similar  facts  for  most  of  the  states  of  the  country.  Such  figures 
as  are  available  for  the  period  of  the  war  show  a  rapid  growth 
of  population  and  a  remarkable  increase  in  manufactures  in 
some  of  the  eastern  states  and  cities  which  were  favored  with  a 
large  percentage  of  the  war  munition  orders,  and  a  decrease  in 
population  in  other  localities.  The  workers  follow  the  orders. 
The  reports  of  the  Ohio  Industrial  Commission  show  approxi- 
mately the  same  number  of  employees  in  Ohio  factories  at  the 
end  of  1913  and  of  1914,  with  a  slump  in  the  total  volume  of 
employment  from  June  to  December;  but  in  1915,  when  Ohio 
began  to  work  on  European  war  orders,  the  number  of  employees 
increased  every  month  in  the  year,  and  December,  191 5,  found 

*  Third  Report  of  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Un- 
employment, p.  47. 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  29 

Ohio  with  154,918  more  employees  than  on  January  i,  1915, 
in  the  17,981  establishments  which  reported.^ 

The  New  York  Department  of  Labor  reports  that  the  number 
of  wage  earners  in  New  York  factories  increased  27  per  cent 
from  January,  1914,  to  September,  1918,  but  it  fell  off  nearly 
10  per  cent  after  the  armistice.^ 

When  new  contract  jobs  are  started,  new  demands  for  labor 
are  created  in  one  locality  which  draw  workers  from  other 
localities,  while  their  termination  or  temporary  stoppages 
throw  hundreds  or  thousands  out  of  work  —  generally  with- 
out warning.  Workmen  are  hired  in  large  numbers  to  construct 
a  drain,  bridge,  building,  or  dam  —  during  the  war,  canton- 
ments, shipyards,  and  arsenals  —  and  dropped  when  the  job 
is  finished. 

"  When  the  construction  of  the  New  York  subways  was  completed 
thousands  of  men  were  suddenly  thrown  into  idleness  and  ...  for 
months  .  .  .  the  Salvation  Army,  the  Bowery  Mission,  and  the  Muni- 
cipal Lodging  House  were  overrun  with  men  who  were  thrown  into 
distress  because  they  could  not  find  work."^ 

The  government's  recognition  of  its  duty  to  redistribute 
the  labor  mobilized  for  war  construction  is  almost  the  first 
instance  in  our  history  of  any  sense  of  responsibility  on  the  part 
of  society  for  the  welfare  of  workers  who  have  been  mobilized 
to  put  through  society's  undertakings. 

3.  Fluctuation  of  Industrial  Prosperity 

The  fluctuations  of  labor  demand  considered  thus  far  have 
been  due  to  conditions  which  obtain  in  all  years,  prosperous  or 
duU.    These  fluctuations  are  less  important  than  those  due  to 

'  Rates  of  Wages,  Hours  of  Labor  and  Fluctuations  of  Employment  in  Ohio  in 
1914,  Bulletin  of  The  Industrial  Commission  of  Ohio,  September  15,  1915,  p.  29; 
and  of  December  15,  1916,  p.  31. 

*  The  Labor  Market  Bulletin,  SeptemhcT,  1918;  February,  1919.  Each  number 
of  the  bulletin  gives  current  data  on  the  subject. 

'  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment,  Third 
Report,  p.  48.  This  is  one  of  the  best  American  reports  on  the  subject  of  employ- 
ment. 


SNomiw 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  3 1 

changes  in  general  business  conditions.  It  is  not  our  purpose  ly 
at  this  time  to  consider  the  widespread  effects  of  booms,  panics, 
or  depressions,  but  rather  the  fluctuations  in  business  in  ordinary 
or  normal  years.  If  we  never  had  panics  or  depressions,  it 
would  nevertheless  be  true  that  some  years  would  be  busier 
than  others  because  of  a  multitude  of  different  forces  which 
affect  human  life  and  its  economic  activities.  Good  crops,  or 
crop  prospects,  the  opening  up  of  new  mining  fields,  increased 
foreign  demands,  the  optimistic  predictions  of  leading  business 
men,  and  many  other  social  or  natural  forces  encourage  business 
activity  during  some  years ;  while  bad  crops,  the  loss  of  markets, 
ill-advised  legislation,  impending  political  changes,  and  other 
influences  retard  industrial  activity  in  other  years.  Mr.  Hornell 
Hart's  careful  study  of  the  employment  situation  in  the  United 
States  from  1902  to  1917  shows  that  while  our  industrial  popu- 
lation increased  in  numbers  from  approximately  19,500,000 
workmen  in  1902  to  about  30,200,000  in  1917,^  industry's  de- 
mand for  labor  from  year  to  year  did  not  maintain  any  equiva- 
lence to  the  rate  of  growth  of  the  industrial  population.  In 
1902  there  was  an  average  of  2,750,000  workers  out  of  employ- 
ment at  all  times  during  the  year.  In  1903,  1906,  1907,  1910, 
and  1917  the  annual  average  fell  below  two  millions.  During 
the  depression  of  1908  it  was  three  and  a  half  millions,  and  in 
that  of  1 9 14-15  it  was  four  and  a  half  millions.  Throughout 
the  sixteen  years  the  unemployed  constituted,  on  the  average, 
9.9  per  cent  of  the  labor  force ;  but  this  percentage  reached 
14. 1  per  cent  in  1902,  14.8  per  cent  in  1908,  15.8  per  cent  in  1915, 
and  16  per  cent  in  1916.  On  the  other  hand  it  fell  to  5.5  per  cent 
in  1906  and  6  per  cent  in  1916,  and  4.7  per  cent  in  1917.  The 
other  years  saw  fluctuations  between  these  extremes.  The 
supply  of  labor  increased  steadily  year  by  year,^  but  the  demand 
for  labor  fluctuated  from  year  to  year,  and  from  month  to 
month  within  the  year.     In  1903,  1906,  1907,  1910,  and  1917 

'  "Fluctuations  in  Unemployment  in  Cities  of  the  United  States,  igo2  to  igiy." 
Hornell  Hart,  Vol.  I,  No.  2,  of  Helen  S.  Trounstine  Foundation,  Cincinnati,  Ohio, 
p.  49,  Table  2. 

'  Op.  cil.,  p.  49.     Mr.  Hart  estimates  that  the  number  of  non-agricultural  workers 


32 


THE  LABOR  MARKET 


the  demand  for  labor  was  strong;  in  1908,  1914,  and  1915, 
it  was  very  dull.  In  the  other  nine  years  it  averages  fairly 
uniform,  with  something  over  2,000,000  out  of  work  at  all  times. ^ 
A  report  of  the  New  York  Department  of  Labor  -  shows  a 
continuous  variation  in  the  amount  of  work  available  from 
1904  to  1916  in  New  York  state.  In  no  two  years  of  the  period 
is  either  the  maximum  or  the  minimum  number  of  persons 
employed  equal ;  in  no  two  years  is  the  total  volume  of  employ- 
ment open  to  wage  earners  equal.  Each  year  is  different  from 
each  other  year  in  the  amount  of  employment  it  ofifers  to  work- 
men. In  1904  there  was  less  work  than  in  1905,  1906,  or  1907 ; 
more  than  in  1908,  1909,  1910,  and  the  early  part  of  1911; 
less  than  there  was  in  191 2;  more  than  there  was  in  19 13, 
1914,  or  1915.  The  Labor  Market  Bulletin  of  the  New  York 
State  Department  of  Labor  shows  a  similar  fluctuation  since 
19 16,  but  with  a  relative  steady  increase  in  the  total  volume  of 
employment  during  the  war  period. 


4.  Seasonal  Fluctuations 

Within  each  year,  busy  or  dull,  there  is  a  pronounced  seasonal 
fluctuation  of  employment.^  Spring,  summer,  autumn,  and  win- 
in  the  United  States  increased  from  nineteen  and  a  half  millions  in  1902  to  a  little 
over  thirty  million  in  191 7.    The  annual  totals  were : 

19.5  millions 

20.2  millions 

20.9  millions 


1902 
1903 
1904 
1905 
1906 
1907 
190S 
1909 


21.6  milUons 

22.3  millions 

23.4  millions 
23.9  millions 
24.6  millions 


1910 
1911 
1912 
1913 
1914 

1915 
1916 
1917 


25.6  millions 

26.1  millions 
26.8  milUons 
28.0  milUons 
28.6  milUons 
29.0  milUons 
29.5  milUons 

30.2  millions 


The  apparent  discrepancy  between  Mr.  Hart's  figures  for  1908  and  those  of  Pro- 
fessor Fairchild  (see  page  5)  is  due  to  the  fact  that  Mr.  Hart's  figures  refer  to  the 
year  as  ending  on  June  30,  and  Professor  Fairchild's  as  ending  on  December  30. 

1  Op.  ciL,  p.  48. 

^Special  Bulletin  No.  85,  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  July,  1917, 
on  p.  25.  The  figures  in  this  bulletin  can  be  brought  down  to  date  at  any  time  by 
the  reader  by  consulting  the  Labor  Market  Bulletin  pubUshed  monthly  by  the  New 
York  Department  of  Labor;  recently  renamed  "The  New  York  Industrial  Com- 
mission. " 

* "  We  come  now  ...  to  the  'seasonal  fluctuations'  of  business,  which  prevail, 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  SS 

ter  each  produce  special  commodity  demands.  In  the  spring 
the  consumer  begins  to  think  of  summer  clothes,  spring  vege- 
tables, outdoor  recreations,  screened  porches,  and  a  host  of  other 
spring  necessities.  In  the  summer  ice  cream,  tennis  shoes, 
golf  clubs,  light  clothing,  travel,  and  other  summer  commodities 
are  in  vogue.  In  the  autumn  preparation  for  winter  causes 
a  shift  of  demand  to  other  types  or  qualities  of  goods,  and  winter 
sees  money  spent  for  commodities,  pleasures,  and  services  that 
are  radically  different  from  those  purchased  in  summer  months. 
This  shifting  of  demand  as  the  seasons  change  causes  alternat- 
ing busy  and  dull  seasons  in  various  industries.  In  addition, 
the  weather  directly  compels  some  industries  to  be  seasonal. 
Crops  must  be  raised  and  railways  constructed  in  northern 
states  in  the  summer  months ;  lumbering,  in  states  like  Michi- 
gan, Wisconsin,  Minnesota,  or  Maine,  naturally  belongs  to  the 
winter.  Much  construction  work  can  be  done  more  cheaply 
in  mild  weather,  while  the  ice  harvest  cannot  call  for  men  at 
the  same  time  that  the  corn  harvest  does. 

These  seasonal  fluctuations  are  of  many  types.  Conse- 
quently, the  seasonal  variation  of  the  labor  dematid  is  a  compli- 
cated phenomenon.  Different  industries  are  unlike,  both  in  the 
degree  of  their  response  to  the  change  of  seasons  and  the  time 
when  they  are  affected.  Some  are  highly  seasonal,  some  moder- 
ately, some  not  at  all.  Some  are  busy  in  winter;  some  in 
spring  and  autumn ;  some  in  the  summer.  Both  the  severity 
of  the  fluctuations  and  the  actual  months  when  they  occur 
in  each  industry  depend  in  part  upon  the  nature  of  its  products, 
in  part  upon  social  customs  and  in  part  upon  the  conditions 
essential  to  productivity  in  that  industry.     A  summer  resort 

to  some  extent,  in  almost  all  trades,  whilst  in  some  they  amount  to  devastating  tidal 
waves.  .  .  .     To  hundreds  of  thousands  of  workmen's  homes  they  mean,  at  present, 
the  cessation  of  employment  and  of  means  of  subsistence  for  many  weeks,  and 
sometimes  months,  in  everj-  year."  —  Webb,  "Prevention  of  Destitution,"  p.  124. 
Cf.  the  following  citations  for  further  important  data  on  this  subject : 
"Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chap.  Ill;  "Sea- 
sonal Trades,"  Sidney  Webb,  ed.;  "Unemployment  in  Lancashire,"  Chapman  and 
Hallsworth,  Chap.  VIII ;  "Unemployment,  A  Social  Study,"  Rowntree  and  Lasker, 
Chap.  IV ;  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment  of  the  State 
of  New  York,  191 1,  Third  Report,  Appendices  I,  IX. 
D 


nOI  iN3D  H3<3 


r 

L 

b 

■ffl- 

P 

in 

C 

z? 

a> 

1 

i 

) 

•«■ 

r-f 

' 

O) 

rJ 

-!— 

y 

<" 

P 

05 

-* 

< 

?- 

CM 

Z          CO 

r 

c 

1 

::> 

c» 

CJ  O   £  LU 

E  INDUSTRIAL 
TISTICS  AND  INF 
DLENESS  IN  T 
W  YORK  STAT 
ILL  TRADES 

o 

V 

1 

^ 

? 

3^fel 

i^ 

05 

O 

<»  fc    LlJ  — 

r 

r-i 

_xJ 

^ 

00 

o 

*=       of 

r 

'-^ 

"" 

~^ 

_, 

J^ 

o 

r 

09 

r' 

A 

CO 

o 

V 

c» 

(j 

— <- 

_/ 

1 — 

^ 

? 

in 

o 

OS 

c 

? 

■«- 
o 

03 

=3 

This  curve  shows  the  fluctuations  of  employment  experienced  by  the  members 
of  trade  unions  in  New  York  state  from  January  i,  1904,  to  June  30,  igi6.  The 
differences  in  the  amount  of  employment  available  in  different  years  is  strikingly 
shown  by  the  contrast  between  the  low  percentage  of  idle  shown  by  the  curve  for 
1904  to  1907,  and  again  from  1909  through  the  summer  of  1912,  and  the  large 
amount  of  idleness  in  1907-08;  the  winter  of  1012-13,  and  1914  and  the  spring  of 
1915.  The  curve  also  shows  very  ckarly,  yerr  by  year,  the  larger  amount  of 
unemployment  that  obtains  in  the  winter  months.  The  returns  from  the  building 
trades,  of  course,  contribute  heavily  to  this  feature  of  the  curve. 

The  curve  was  prepared  by  the  Statistical  Bureau  of  the  New  York  Industrial 
Commission,  who  kindly  loaned  it  to  the  author. 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  35 

cannot  operate  in  the  winter,  for  summer  recreation  cannot 
be  manufactured  in  advance  and  stored  until  sold.  An  electric 
light  plant  must  be  busiest  in  winter.  Electric  light  must  be 
produced  at  the  time  of  sale.  Retail  millinery  estabhshments 
must  be  busiest  just  before  Easter  and  in  the  early  autumn. 
Social  customs  originating  in  the  changes  of  the  seasons  decree 
that  women  shall  go  forth  at  those  times  in  quest  of  hats.  The 
manufacture  of  holiday  goods  naturally  tends  to  concentrate 
in  the  fall,  while  the  holiday  rush  of  department  stores  inevitably 
comes  just  before  Christmas.  Human  nature  and  the  limita- 
tions of  domestic  incomes  preclude  holiday  purchases  very  far 
in  advance  of  their  use.  Wheat,  though  durable  and  sold 
throughout  the  entire  year,  must  be  produced  in  the  summer. 

In  some  industries  none  of  these  factors  actually  compel  the 
busy  season  to  fall  in  certain  months,  but  the  general  situation 
makes  it  almost  inevitable.  Lumbering  is  carried  on  in  the 
winter  months  in  the  northern  states  for  a  number  of  reasons. 
It  is  easier  and  cheaper  to  haul  logs  over  snow  and  ice  than  over 
soft  ground.  The  melting  snows  and  spring  rains  furnish 
water  to  carry  logs  down  to  the  mill  in  the  spring,  but  the  low 
water  of  the  summer  makes  it  impossible  to  move  logs  except 
by  rail.  There  is  a  larger  supply  of  labor  available  for  the 
woods  in  winter.  Tens  of  thousands  of  men  who  work  on  rail- 
ways, on  various  contracting  jobs,  and  farms  are  out  of  work 
in  the  winter.  Labor  is  also  cheaper  in  the  winteF^--  The  lum-~ 
berman  hires  in  a  labor  market  heavily  stocked  with  idle  men. 
Labor  is  more  contented  in  the  woods  in  the  winter.  Flies 
and  mosquitoes  make  the  summer  woodsman's  life  a  burden, 
while  the  crowded  bunk  house  is  not  so  attractive  on  an  August 
night  as  when  the  temperature  is  ten  below  zero.  Custom  also 
plays  its  part.  In  earlier  times,  when  the  United  States  was 
predominantly  agricultural,  the  lumberman  had  to  depend 
upon  farmers  for  labor,  and  they  were  free  only  in  the  winter. 
He  also  had  to  depend  upon  snow  to  haul  his  logs  out  of  the  woods 
and  on  streams  to  carry  them  down  to  the  mill.  The  develop- 
ment of  our  migratory  labor  class  has  lessened  his  dependence 
on  the  farmer,  and  the  railroad  has  given  him  another  means  of 


36  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

transportation,  but  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  lumber- 
man still  has  sound  reasons  for  depending  on  the  winter  months 
for  the  main  part  of  his  logging  operations. 

Beet  sugar  manufacturing  has  an  even  shorter  year  than 
logging.  The  Federal  Trade  Commission  shows  in  its  1917 
report  ^  that  the  longest  period  which  any  beet  sugar  factory 
in  the  United  States  operated  in  any  one  year  from  1909  through 
1914  was  159  days.  The  Mt.  Clemens,  Michigan,  factory  set 
this  record  in  1911-12,  but  it  has  never  run  more  than  108 
days  in  any  other  year.  The  Michigan  factories  had  an  unusu- 
ally good  year  in  1911-12,  when  they  had  an  average  run  of 
123  days,  and  the  Utah  factories  in  1909-10,  when  they  oper- 
ated, on  the  average,  127  days.  As  a  usual  thing  beet  sugar 
factories  run  from  65  to  100  days  a  year,  though  some  run  less 
than  that  minimum  and  others  more  than  that  maximum, 
depending  upon  the  success  of  the  beet  crop  in  the  particular 
locality.  The  report  accounts  for  the  short  season  in  the  fol- 
lowing words : 

"Sugar  beets,  as  already  stated,  cannot  be  kept  a  very  long  time 
without  deterioration.  They  will  keep  in  a  frozen  state,  but  they 
must  be  worked  before  they  thaw.  The  harvest  begins  in  the  late 
simimer  or  early  fall,  and  they  must  therefore  be  worked  before  the 
first  warm  days  of  spring.  For  this  reason,  the  operating  period  of  a 
factory  is  comparatively  short,  and  the  plants  usually  lie  idle  for  at 
least  two  thirds  of  the  year,  and  often  longer.  .  .  .  When  the  plant 
ceases  to  operate  the  organization  of  employees  is  broken  up,  and 
most  of  the  employees  are  discharged."  - 

Many  other  industries  are  characterized  by  this  single  busy 
season  followed  by  complete  idleness.  Tile  ditching  and  dredg- 
ing can  be  done  only  in  unfrozen  ground.  Oyster  and  salmon 
canneries,  as  well  as  the  pea,  corn,  tomato,  and  other  summer 
vegetable  canneries  of  the  northern  states,  all  work  "short 
years."    The  vegetable  canners  open  in  June  and  close  in  Sep- 

1  Federal  Trade  Commission,  Report  on  the  Beet  Sugar  Industry  in  the  United  States, 
1917,  Table  i,  pp.  3-5. 

*  Federal  Trade  Commission,  Report  on  the  Beet  Sugar  Industry  in  the  United  States, 
May  24,  1917,  pp.  2-3. 


THE   DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  37 

tember  or  October.  During  the  winter  their  force  is  reduced 
to  their  sales,  ofi&ce,  and  shipping  organization.  Even  this 
work  is  often  largely  turned  over  to  selling  associations.  The 
season  of  the  oyster  canners  opens  in  September  and  closes  for 
the  year  in  April. 

Another  important  type  of  seasonal  trade  has  two  busy 
seasons  and  two  dull  seasons,  instead  of  a  short  operating 
year.  The  garment  trades  are  one  of  the  most  important  of 
this  type.  They  are  highly  seasonal.  In  the  dress  and  waist 
industry, 

"  there  are  about  six  months  of  activity,  four  in  the  spring  and  two  in 
the  fall ;  half  of  them  carried  on  under  extreme,  almost  feverish 
pressure,  followed  by  an  equal  period  of  sub-normal  activity  with 
almost  complete  stagnation  for  one  month  in  the  year.  .  .  .  There 
is  a  tendency  to  retain  as  many  employees  engaged  during  the  busy 
season  as  possible  and  to  keep  all  of  them  partly  employed  during  the 
slow  season."  ^ 

The  number  of  workers  in  custom  dressmaking  shops  in  the 
United  States  in  1900  varied  from  39,593  in  the  January  dull 
season  to  approximately  57,000  in  April  and  May ;  then  dropped 
off  from  month  to  month  to  a  minimum  of  23,615  in  August, 
and  again  reached  54,962  in  November,  the  height  of  the 
autumn  season.-  There  were  18,000  fewer  persons  employed 
in  January  than  in  May ;  and  3 1 ,000  fewer  employed  in  August 
than  in  November.  The  19 10  census  shows  that  in  January, 
1909,  there  were  147,000  workers  in  women's  clothing  factories.^ 
Thirteen  thousand  were  added  in  February,  and  6000  more 
in  March.  Then  the  summer  slump  began.  Eight  thousand 
were  discharged  in  April,  12,000  in  May;  8000  in  June,  and 
3000  more  in  July.  Business  now  began  to  pick  up.  The 
number  of  employees  increased  13,000  in  August,  15,000  in 
September,  and  4000  in  October.  Then  the  winter  slump 
began.  Five  thousand  were  let  out  in  November,  and  9000 
in  December. 

>  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor,  Bulktin  No.  146,  p.  18.  *  Ibid. 

•United  States  Census,  1910,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  2y2. 


38  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Some  of  the  causes  of  these  sharp  seasonal  fluctations  in  the 
volume  of  employment  are  interestingly  presented  in  a  federal 
report  on  the  industry.^ 

"The  social  life  of  a  community  largely  determines  the  dress- 
maker's season.  The  tendency  of  the  wealthy  class  to  live  in  the 
city  only  about  six  months  in  the  year  and  to  spend  an  ever  increasing 
length  of  time  in  the  country,  causes  social  festivities  to  concentrate 
within  the  months  of  November  to  January.  Upon  return  from  the 
country  in  the  fall,  the  feminine  element  deluges  the  dressmakers 
with  orders  for  new  gowns  which  must  be  completed  within  these  few 
months.  Again  in  the  spring,  the  first  warm  day,  June  weddings, 
college  commencements,  preparation  for  a  trip  abroad  or  for  a  sojourn 
in  the  country,  all  bring  in  a  rush  of  orders  from  March  to  June. 
But  a  beautiful  autumn  may  tempt  people  to  stay  in  the  coimtry  later 
than  usual  thereby  affecting  the  welfare  of  thousands  of  workers,  for 
they  are  not  employed  until  there  is  work  for  them  to  do. 

"The  earlier  exodus  to  summer  resorts  brings  an  earlier  end  to  the 
spring  'busy  season'  and  the  later  return  to  the  city  in  the  fall  a 
later  opening  of  the  shops  for  the  winter  season.  The  increasing 
exodus  to  the  South  in  midwinter,  on  the  other  hand,  has  lengthened 
the  winter  season  in  Boston.  'The  winter  season  formerly  was  on 
the  decline  by  Thanksgiving, '  said  a  dressmaker  of  long  experience ; 
'now  it  lasts  through  December  and  in  some  shops  well  through 
January.  Customers  must  have  new  clothes  suitable  to  the  southern 
climate,  and  their  orders  help  fill  in  the  slack  season.' 

"The  frequent  and  abrupt  changes  in  style  decreed  by  Parisian 
fashion  leaders  may  greatly  affect  the  seasons  of  individual  workers. 
The  vogue  of  'princess'  and  whole  dresses  meant  'out  of  work' 
earlier  for  the  specialized  skirt  workers,  who  make  no  claim  to  work 
on  waists  with  artistic  lines.  The  'kimono  sleeves'  meant  small  need 
of  specialized  sleeve  makers,  for  the  waist  girl  made  the  sleeves  with 
the  waist.  The  dainty  chiffons  left  small  opportunity  for  the  plain 
finisher,  as  the  delicate,  perishable  materials  must  be  handled  with 
deft  and  skilled  hands.  The  increased  use  of  embroidery  trimmings 
offered  occupation  to  the  foreign  girls  and  women  who  do  beautiful 
handwork,  some  of  them  working  in  their  own  homes. 

"Dependence  on  Parisian  fashion  with  its  consequent  congestion 
of  the  working  season  is  largely  due  to  the  customer.     The  vdtra- 

'  "Dressmaking  as  a  Trade  for  Women  in  Massachusetts, "' B«/fe/»»  A'o.  iq3  of 
the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  pp.  83-85. 


THE   DEMAND   FOR   LABOR  39 

fashionable  dressmaker  whose  customers  insist  on  the  latest  Parisian 
whims  must  wait  for  the  new  models. 

"They  (the  fashionable  dressmakers)  must  go  to  Europe  once  or 
twice  a  year,  and  the  workrooms  frequently  are  idle  until  their  return. 
Social  festivities  then  come  with  a  rush,  and  the  workrooms  are 
suddenly  transformed  from  barren,  deserted  rooms  to  crowded,  busy 
workshops  and  hundreds  of  orders  are  rushed  through  at  high  speed. 
The  work  is  soon  turned  out  and  the  workers  are  rapidly  laid  off. 
The  less  'exclusive'  shops  depend  on  importers,  who  bring  the  models 
from  Paris  to  New  York,  while  the  stLU  more  modest  dressmakers 
depend  on  fashion  books  and  shop  windows  for  the  new  styles.  The 
dressmaker  who  caters  to  the  middle  and  lower  classes  is  much  less 
bound  by  Parisian  decrees,  and  as  a  result  has  a  longer  and  more  regular 
season.  The  small  dressmaker  who  is  clever  and  has  good  taste  and 
inventive  genius  makes  her  own  'Paris  models'  in  the  dull  season,  or 
persuades  her  customers  that  there  is  to  be  little  change  in  the  styles 
of  evening  gowns,  and  since  they  do  not  desire  the  latest  freaks  of 
fashion,  she  is  not  delayed  by  waiting  for  Parisian  mandates. 

"The  working,  or  'busy  seasons'  vary  for  different  localities,  differ- 
ent shops,  and  different  years,  but  on  the  whole  the  orders  for  summer 
work  tend  to  come  in  from  March  to  June  and  for  the  winter  work 
from  September  to  December.  The  two  seasons,  spring  and  fall, 
characterize  the  dressmaking  trade.  The  working  force  is  gradually 
taken  on  through  March  and  reaches  its  maximum  in  April  and  May. 
During  the  five  months,  April  to  August,  which  mark  the  heights  and 
depths  of  the  dressmaking  season,  the  maximum  number  employed 
during  the  year  has  been  gathered  into  the  folds  of  the  trade  and 
scattered  again  to  the  four  winds.  While  there  is  a  precipitous  drop 
in  the  number  employed  in  June,  July,  and  August,  an  equally  rapid 
rise  occurs  in  September  and  October,  when  the  workers  are  again 
assembled  for  the  winter's  work,  and  the  season  reaches  its  height  in 
November.  However,  the  decline  in  January  and  February  is  never 
so  great  as  in  summer,  as  the  majority  of  shops  resort  to  various 
makeshifts  to  hold  their  best  workers  for  the  coming  spring  season." 

In  the  paper-box  industry  the  actual  months  when  a  partic- 
ular plant  is  busy  or  dull  is  determined  by  the  particular  trade 
to  which  it  caters.  A  factory  which  produces  candy  boxes 
will  have  a  different  season  from  one  which  specializes  on  gun 
cartridge   or   hosiery   boxes.     But   "wherever  data  could   be 


40  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

obtained,"  says  the  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Com- 
mission, 

"from  Massachusetts  to  Cahfornia,  from  Maryland  to  Oregon, 
and  in  the  great  industrial  states  of  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Penn- 
sylvania, Illinois,  and  Wisconsin ;  a  like  alternation  of  rush  seasons 
in  the  spring  and  fall,  with  slack  in  the  winter  and  summer  was 
found.  For  instance,  in  Philadelphia,  an  investigation  of  five  firms 
in  1 9 13  disclosed  the  fact  that  after  Christmas  they  made  wholesale 
dismissals  to  the  extent  of  24.3  per  cent  of  their  force.  In  New  York 
City  last  year  the  Factory  Investigating  Commission  found  that  the 
number  of  employees  rose  to  6700  just  before  Christmas,  and  fell  to 
6100  directly  after  that  time."  ^ 

The  tendency  to  marked  seasonal  fluctuations  is  character- 
istic of  a  wide  range  of  industries,  but  not  all  of  them  have  as 
distinct  spring  and  autumn  seasons  as  those  just  referred  to. 
The  flour  mills  are  least  busy  in  June  and  most  busy  in  Novem- 
ber. In  1909,  a  normal  year,  there  were  about  5000  more  men 
at  work  in  the  autumn  than  in  the  summer.^  Foundries  and 
machine  shops  started  the  year  1909  with  a  force  of  482,080 
men.  January  to  April  is  their  dull  season.  Then  the  number 
of  employees  steadily  increased  up  to  a  maximum  of  597,234 
in  December.  There  were  only  80  per  cent  as  many  men  at 
work  in  January  as  in  December.  The  hosiery  and  knit  goods 
industry  averaged  about  175,000  employees  from  January  to 
August,  but  only  130,000  from  September  to  December.  Boot 
and  shoe  factories  employed  5000  more  workers  from  August 
to  March  than  from  April  to  July.  The  rubber  shoe  industry 
had  its  dull  period  earlier,  from  January  to  April.  Carriage 
making  was  busy  until  June  and  then  declined  the  balance  of 
the  year.  Car  building  fell  to  its  minimum  in  May  with  268,700 
employees  and  reached  its  maximum  in  December  with  301,000. 
It  was  dull  all  through  April  and  May.  In  men's  clothing  the 
change  from  busy  to  dull  seasons  is  violent :  December  is  the 
busiest  month ;  January  the  most  slack. 

Interesting  contrasts  between  industries  are  foimd  in  a  recent 

1  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission,  Fourth  Report,  Vol  II,  p.  52Q. 
»  United  States  Census,  1910,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  283. 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  41 

New  York  Industrial  Commission  bulletin.^  They  reveal, 
year  after  year,  a  regularly  recurring  decrease  in  the  volume  of 
employment  in  the  metal  trades,  clothing  industries,  printing, 
woodworking,  transportation,  and  building  trades  during  the 
winter  months,  and  just  as  regularly  recurring  periods  of  idle- 
ness in  the  summer  months,  but  an  almost  unvarying  volume 
of  employment  for  stationary  engineers  and  firemen  through- 
out the  year. 

The  accompanying  Charts  III,  IV,  and  V,  selected  from  those 
pubUshed  by  the  Industrial  Commission  in  its  Bulletin  No.  85, 
demonstrate  in  a  striking  manner  the  contrasts  between  dif- 
ferent industries  in  seasonableness.  Chart  III,  on  the  build- 
ing trades,  shows  a  large  volume  of  unemployment  of  builders 
each  winter;  Chart  IV  shows  that  musicians  and  theatrical 
employees  have  their  dull  period  in  the  summer  and  are  busy 
in  the  winter;  while  Chart  V  furnishes  an  illustration  of  a 
non-seasonal  occupation,  the  operation  of  stationary  engines. 

The  fact  that  June,  1914,  to  December,  1916,  was  a  period 
when  factories  in  New  York  state  were  increasing  their  labor 
force  and  the  total  volume  of  their  business  does  not  prevent 
the  seasonal  fluctuations  from  occurring  in  those  as  in  other  years. 

One  of  the  most  important  motives  causing  employers  to 
concentrate  production  in  rush  periods  is  the  desire  to  keep  down 
interest  charges  and  use  the  smallest  possible  amount  of  "going- 
capital."  If  the  employer  can  defer  production  until  shortly 
before  the  time  of  sale,  he  does  not  have  the  sums  he  advances 
for  raw  materials,  wages,  and  other  current  expenses  tied  up 
very  long  before  he  begins  to  receive  payment  for  his  product. 
He  keeps  down  his  interest  charges.  He  often  also  decreases 
his  insurance  and  handling  costs. 

The  unwillingness  of  customers  to  order  until  the  last  moment-^, 
is  another  influence  that  increases  seasonal  fluctuation  of  labor 
demand.     The  producer  has  to  regulate  his  production  by  his 
orders.     Marketing  conditions  and  methods  are  here  the  deter- 
mining influence. 

*  "Course  of  Employment  in  New  York  State  from  1904  to  1916,"  Bulletin 
No.  85,  July,  191 7,  New  York  Industrial  Commission,  •  pp.   13-36. 


42 


THE  LABOR   MARKET 


iTQi  nna  V33 


b 

CD 

h. 

^ 

] 

ID 

H 

1 

1 
— 1 

=1 

i 

t 
c 

■i: 

p 

« 

^ 

c 

- 

> 

O) 

NEW  YORK  STATE  INDUSTRIAL  COMMISSION 

BUREAU  OF  STATISTICS  AND  INFORMATION 

PERCENTAGE  OF  IDLENESS  IN  TRADE  UNIONS 

IN  NEW  YORK  STATE 

BUILDING  TRADES 

3 

i 

1 

, 

I, 

E-^ 

3 

o 

J-^ 

^ 

3 

CD 

e 

T 

? 

o 

05 

r 

-^ 

O 

^ 

_!. 

c 

c 

3 
^ 

g 

T 

r- 

\-, 

P 

05 

-' 

c=: 

1— 

"^ 

> 

O 

3101 1^33  UIJ 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR 


43 


!naUN3D  H3d 


-c= 

^ 

as 

05 

_r 

y 

in 

~^ 

-^ 

-^ 

c 

^ 

i 

"^ 

CO 
05 

1 

. 

05 

^ 

,  ' 

NEW  YORK  STATE  INDUSTRIAL  COMMISSION 

BUREAU  OF  STATISTICS  AND  INFORMATION 

PERCENTAGE  OF  IDLENESS  IN  TRADE'UNIONS 

IN  NEW  YORK  STATE 
MUSICIANS  AND  THEATRICAL  EMPLOYMENT 

cz 

T" 

c 

1 

■ 

03 

^ 

c 

r- 

O 
05 

1 

^ 

- 

05 
O 

■ 

c=z 

rJ 

CO 

o 

K 

I 

1 

<= 

-^ 

L 

1 

o 

o 

05 

~? 

3 

< 

J 
"A 

3 

o 

05 

3101  1N33  Cd 


44 


THE  LABOR  MARKET 


31Qt  1N33  U1J 


J 

CO 

\ 

05 

\ 

C5 

\ 

05 

} 

er. 

NEW  YORK  STATE  INDUSTRIAL  COMMISSION 

BUREAU  OF  STATISTICS  AND  INFORMATION 

PERCENTAGE  OF  IDLENESS  IN  TRADE  UNIONS 

IN  NEW  YORK  STATE 

STATIONARY  ENGINE  TENDING 

1 

05 

o 

j 

o 

) 

eo 

o 

05 

] 

O 

i 

CO 

en 

] 

in 

o 

C5 

1 

O 
05 

3101  1N33  U3<1 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  45 

The  interrelation  of  industries  has  an  important  influence  on 
their  seasons.  Farming  has  a  busy  season  in  the  spring,  fol- 
lowed by  a  dull  period  before  hay  cutting,  and  then  an  increas- 
ingly busy  period  during  the  harvest,  threshing,  and  marketing 
periods.  It  gives  the  railways  a  rush  of  business  in  the  autumn 
when  the  crops  must  be  moved  to  market,  while  factories  which 
work  up  agricultural  products  become  busy  after  the  crops 
are  brought  to  the  cities.  The  busy  season  of  beet  sugar  fac- 
tories, canneries,  tobacco  warehouses,  food  product  factories, 
elevators,  jobbers,  and  many  others  is  determined  by  their  rela- 
tions to  the  agricultural  industry.  Similarly,  sawmills  are 
busy  in  summer,  when  well-filled  mill  ponds  furnish  plentiful 
water  power,  the  logs  cut  the  preceding  winter  afford  raw  ma- 
terial, and  laborers  who  come  out  of  the  woods  provide  a  labor 
force.  Ore  and  coal  docks  can  operate  only  during  the  naviga- 
tion season,  when  the  boats  are  moving  the  product. 

The  same  industry  frequently  varies  much  in  its  seasonal 
character  in  different  localities  and  different  plants.  These 
variations  are  due  either  to  pecuHarities  of  the  market  in  which 
they  sell,  the  quaUty  of  their  product,  or  the  number  of  different 
products  they  make.  Peculiarities  of  market  may  cause  a 
given  type  of  establishment  in  one  locaUty  to  show  Uttle  resem- 
blance, from  an  employment  point  of  view,  to  the  same  type 
of  establishments  in  other  localities.  For  instance,  a  laundry 
located  in  Milwaukee,  Chicago,  or  Boston  ^  may  run  through- 
out the  year  udth  little  seasonal  variation.  It  may  be  partic- 
ularly busy  on  certain  days  of  the  week;  or  during  certain 
weeks,  as  just  before  Easter,  or  in  the  autumn  when  winter 
clothes  are  being  put  in  shape  for  use,  but  is  ordinarily  able 
to  absorb  its  rush  business  by  speeding  up,  overtime,  and  possibly 
a  small  amount  of  extra  help.  But  a  laundry  located  in  Petoskey 
or  Charlevoix,  Michigan,  where  a  local  wag  said  they  live  "on 
fish  in  the  winter  and  tourists  in  the  summer"  and  where  the 
population  increases  three,  four,  or  five  hundred  per  cent  during 

*  Massachusetts  Commission  on  Minimum  Wage  Boards,  House  No.  1697,  1912, 
p.  62;  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  122,  "Employment  of 
Women  in  Power  Laundries  in  Milwaukee,"  pp.  79-81. 


46  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

the  summer  resort  season,  must  be  a  highly  seasonal  industry, 
with  a  larger  labor  force  during  "the  season"  than  when  the 
"resorters"  have  departed.'  Similarly,  thousands  of  hotels 
have  an  almost  uniform  business  throughout  the  year,  but  many 
located  in  summer  resort  districts  close  entirely  during  the  win- 
ter, while  those  in  winter  resorts  often  close  in  the  summer. 
A  federal  commission  reports  that  the  manufacture  of  shirts 
and  overalls  is  "fairly  regular,  with  very  little  slack  time  and 
almost  no  overtime"  in  the  Louisiana  factories,  but  that  in 
northern  factories  there  was  often  a  dull  time  in  the  summer 
and  a  rush  in  January,  February,  and  March. ^ 
"- -The  type  of  trade  to  which  a  plant  caters  often  determines 
the  regularity  of  its  demand  for  labor.  If  a  particular  concern 
is  manufacturing  tin  cans  for  oyster  canneries  which  are  busy 
from  September  to  April,  its  busy  season  will  be  different  from 
that  of  a  concern  producing  cans  for  berry  and  vegetable  can- 
ning. A  Senate  report  calls  attention  to  the  contrast  between 
two  can  factories  in  the  same  state.  The  first  plant  was  "very 
highly  seasonal."  It  made  bulky  cans  which  were  hard  to 
store  in  stock  and  began 

"manufacturing  with  a  full  force  about  the  middle  of  April  .  .  . 
with  .  .  .  about  1200  men,  women,  and  children,  who  work  60 
hours  per  week  regularly,  and  often  put  in  overtime,  if  the  season 
is  at  all  fair.  This  continues  until  about  the  end  of  August,  some- 
times imtil  about  the  end  of  September.  Then  the  force  is  suddenly 
reduced  to  about  100  or  120  employees  who  stay  on  through  the 
winter.  "3 

The  other  factory,  which  produced  a  general  line  of  goods, 
had  no  busy  and  dull  seasons,  but  occasionally  worked  over- 
time to  care  for  rush  orders. 

1  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  while  the  report  on  "  Employment  of  Women 
in  Milwaukee  Power  Laundries"  in  Bulletin  122.  United  States  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics  (p.  79),  states  that  the  laundry  business  is  not  a  seasonal  industry, 
the  Report  of  the  Industrial  Welfare  Commission  of  the  State  of  Washington,  1914, 
classifies  laundries  as  well  as  factories  as  more  seasonal  than  department  stores. 

*  Vol.  18,  Report  on  Women  and  Child  Wage  Earners,  United  States  Senate 
Document  No.  645,  6ist  Congress,  2d  Session,  1913,  p.  287. 

^Ibid.,  p.  57. 


THE   DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  47 

Another  typical  illustration  is  found  in  the  candy  factory. 
"There  is  little  uniformity  among  the  factories  in  the  length 
of  time  which  they  are  closed  during  the  year."  ^  Those  cater- 
ing to  the  hoUday  trade  in  cheap  candies  have  two  very  distinct 
and  short  rush  seasons,  one  just  before  Christmas  and  the  other 
just  before  Easter,^  but  the  establishments  which  cater  to  the 
high-grade  candy  trade,  such  as  fine  chocolates,  work  with  rela- 
tive steadiness  throughout  the  year,  though  they  are  partic- 
ularly busy  from  April  to  Christmas.  The  cheap  candy  trade 
is  far  more  seasonal  than  the  fine  candy  trade ;  the  busy  seasons 
are  shorter,  the  help  is  of  a  lower  industrial  type,  and  wages 
both  by  the  day  and  by  the  year  are  lower. 

Differences  between  plants  in  the  cracker  and  biscuit  industry 
are  due  to  the  size  of  the  plants  and  to  selling  methods  rather  than 
to  differences  in  products.  The  large  plants,  which  sell  in  large 
lots  and  take  large  contracts  to  be  filled  during  an  extended 
period,  are  able  to  maintain  a  rather  uniform  labor  force  through- 
out the  year.  But  in  "the  small  factories  work  is  often  very 
irregular,  depending  upon  the  orders  which  come  in  from  day 
to  day."  3 

It  has  sometimes  been  assumed  that  all  occupations  are 
seasonal  and  employ  more  persons  at  some  time  in  the  year 
than  at  other  times.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  are  many  indus- 
tries which  do  not  experience  any  marked  seasonal  fluctuation. 
Increases  and  decreases  in  their  labor  force  are  due  to  changes 
in  the  general  condition  of  prosperity,  to  obtaining  or  failing 
to  obtain  orders,  and  to  other  more  or  less  irregular  influences. 
The  Senate  report  on  Women  and  Child  Wage  Earners  ^  reaches 
the  conclusion  that  cigar,  cigarette,  and  other  smoking  and  chew- 
ing tobacco  manufactures,  jewelry  and  clock  making,  corset 

•  Massachusetts  Commission  on  Minimum  Wage  Boards,  House  No.  1697,  1912, 
pp.  63  f. 

'  Bulletin  of  tlie  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  on  Condition  of 
Woman  and  Child  Wage  Earners,  Vol.  18,  p.  121. 
*Ibid.,  Vol.  18,  p.  165. 

*  "Employment  of  Women  and  Children  in  Selected  Industries,"  Vol.  18,  of 
Report  on  Woman  and  Child  Wage  Earners  in  the  United  States,  Senate  Document 
No.  64s,  6ist  Congress,  2d  session,  pp.  91,  112,  149,  181,  215,  221,  278,  297,  324. 


48  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

manufacture,  staple  hardware,  staple  hosiery,  and  knit  goods, 
needle  and  pin  manufactures,  rubber  and  elastic  goods,  stamped 
and  enamel  ware,  and  the  woolen  and  worsted  industry  are  not 
distinctly  seasonal  industries.  Some  of  them  have  a  somewhat 
busier  season  at  certain  periods,  particularly  just  before  Christ- 
mas, but  the  fluctuation  of  business  is  not  often  sufficient  to 
affect  the  number  of  employees.  During  their  busy  seasons 
they  work  harder  and  faster,  and  if  necessary  work  overtime. 
An  examination  of  the  United  States  Census  figures  agrees  in 
showing  little  fluctuation  of  employment  in  many  industries. 
This  is  particularly  the  case  in  some  of  the  smaller  manufactur- 
ing industries,  such  as  the  preparation  of  dentists'  materials, 
drug  grinding,  and  the  manufacture  of  dyestuffs  and  flavoring 
extracts. 

It  has  also  been  assumed  that  the  busy  seasons  of  practically 
all  industries  come  in  the  spring  and  fall  and  their  dull  seasons 
in  the  summer  and  winter.  This  is  not  true,  but  it  seems 
beyond  question  that  there  is  more  work  to  be  had  in  the  total 
In  the  United  States  during  the  warm  months.  Business  in 
general  begins  to  pick  up  in  March.  A  spring  period  of  activity 
is  followed  by  a  dullness  in  July  and  August.  In  September 
the  fall  work  begins  and  more  persons  are  employed  during 
September,  October,  and  early  November  than  at  any  other 
time  in  the  year.  The  latter  part  of  November  finds  production 
checked  in  many  industries,  but  those  which  cater  to  a  Christ- 
mas trade  are  especially  busy. 

Hornell  Hart  shows  that  from  1902  to  1917  there  were,  on 
the  average,  nearly  a  million  more  persons  unemployed  in 
January  and  February  than  in  any  of  the  other  months  of  the 
year ;  and,  on  the  average,  nearly  a  half  million  fewer  persons 
unemployed  in  October  than  in  any  of  the  other  months.  His 
figures  do  not  show  much  greater  activity  in  the  spring  than  in 
the  summer,  and  it  is  probably  true  that  the  tendency  to  a 
dull  period  in  the  summer  is  becoming  less  prominent  as  we 
change  from  an  agricultural  to  an  industrial  nation.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  late  summer  will  probably  always  be  a  "be- 
tween seasons"  period  for  many  industries,  and  the  growing 


THE  DEMAND  FOR  LABOR  49 

tendency  to  allow  summer  vacations  to  wage  earners  will  tend 
to  perpetuate  the  custom  of  slack  production  in  late  June,  July, 
and  early  August.^  The  winter  slump  is  much  more  important. 
From  November  to  February,  there  are  more  industries  which 
are  slack  than  are  busy,  and  there  is  always,  in  ordinary  times, 
a  decrease  in  employment  during  the  winter  months  in  most 
sections  of  the  United  States.  The  census  on  manufactures 
shows  a  greater  number  of  persons  at  work  in  the  spring  and 
autumn  than  in  either  the  winter  or  summer,  in  1900,  1905, 
and  1910.  The  statistics  published  by  the  various  state  em- 
ployment offices  show  the  same  fact.- 

The  volume  of  employment  in  the  nation  is  probably  not  so 
much  less  in  winter  as  it  appears  to  be.  Thousands  of  men 
who  are  able  to  subsist  on  very  little  work  in  the  summer  months 
without  any  one  noticing  their  comparative  idleness  —  tramps,  - 
loafers,  and  irregular  migratory  workers  —  flock  into  the  cities 
during  the  winter  to  seek  a  place  to  keep  warm.  They  cannot 
sleep  around  haystacks  or  in  an  alley  in  the  winter,  and  they 
clamor  loudly  for  "inside  work."  Most  of  this  type  are  practi- 
cally useless  when  placed.  It  is  hard  for  them  to  get  work, 
and  when  they  do  they  are  either  discharged  or  quit  their  jobs 
with  the  greatest  frequency.  They  swell  the  ranks  of  the 
unemployed  in  our  cities  during  the  winter  months,  and  make 
the  winter  unemployment  seem  much  more  in  excess  of  summer 
than  it  really  is.  Practically  speaking,  these  men  are  unem- 
ployed all  the  year  round.  They  never  work  if  they  can  avoid 
it.     But  after  due  allowance  is  made  for  them,  it  is  clear 

'"Fluctuations  in  Unemployment  in  Cities  in  the  United  States,  1902-17," 
HorncU  Hart,  in  "  Studies  from  the  Helen  S.  Trounstine  Foundation,"  Cincinnati, 
Vol.  I,  No.  2,  p.  48. 

2  The  figures  of  the  Minnesota  offices  show  that  the  average  number  of  place- 
ments from  April  through  November  in  1912-13  was  5804,  while  it  was  only  3182  per 
month  in  December,  January,  February,  and  March.  In  1913-14,  the  summer 
average  was  5583  ;  the  winter  average,  2617.  In  1916-17,  the  summer  average  was 
5221  and  the  winter  average  3520;  in  1917-18,  the  summer  average  was  48S6,  and 
the  winter  average  3135.  —  Biennial  Reports,  Minnesota  Department  of  Labor  and 
Industries,   chapter  on  "PubHc   Employment  Offices." 

California's  figures  for  1 916-17  show  almost  twice  as  many  men  per  month  sent 
out  to  work  from  .Vpril  to  June  as  were  sent  out  from  November  to  February.  —  Cf. 
Annual  Report,  California  Public  Employment  Bureau,  1916-17,  p.  14- 
E 


50  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

that   there  is  less   employment   available  in  winter   than   in 
summer.* 

Sidney  Webb  seems  to  believe  that  the  situation  just  described 
for  America  does  not  obtain  for  Britain.     He  says : 

"Stating  it  definitely,  I  venture  to  say  that  if  we  could  get  accurate 
statistics  of  the  total  number  of  wage-earners  actually  in  employment 
in  the  United  Kingdom  this  week  we  should  find  it  to  be  very  nearly 
identical  with  the  total  number  for  any  other  week  of  the  present 
year.  This  is  almost  certainly  true  with  regard  to  the  great  mass  of 
unskilled  and  only  slightly  specialized  labour,  which  makes  up  more 
than  half  of  the  whole. 

"An  economic  explanation  can  be  given  for  this  hypothetical 
paradox.  In  a  highly-evolved  industrial  community,  with  occupations 
of  the  most  multifarious  kinds,  the  'product'  of  industry  comes  to 
market  uninterruptedly  throughout  the  whole  year.  There  is,  in 
such  a  community,  no  special  month  of  harvest.  Translated  into 
practical  life,  we  may  say  that  nearly  all  of  us  get  our  incomes  week 
by  week,  or  quarter  by  quarter,  fairly  evenly,  throughout  the  year; 
and  we  nearly  all  of  us  spend  out  incomes  as  we  get  them.  It  is 
true  that  we  do  not  spend  them  each  week  in  the  same  way.  But 
week  by  week  we  are  aU  using  or  consuming  much  the  same  amount 
in  the  aggregate,  giving,  in  the  aggregate,  the  same  number  of  orders, 
to  the  same  total  amount ;  and,  therefore,  indirectly  setting  to  work, 
in  the  aggregate,  the  same  amount  of  labour. 

"From  this  hypothesis  there  seems  to  flow  the  momentous  con- 
clusion that  the  seasonal  alternations  of  over-pressure  and  slackness 
to  which  so  many  workers  are  subjected,  with  such  evil  residts,  are 
due  only  to  failures  of  adjustment.  There  is  no  more  'inevitability' 
about  them  than  about  the  rattling  of  a  motor-car.  They  mean 
only  that  our  statesmen  have  not  yet  given  themselves  the  trouble 
to  make  the  social  adjustments,  and  to  employ  the  various  devices, 
by  which  these  calamitous  dislocations  of  the  Uves  of  so  many  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  households  can  be  prevented."  - 

"So  long  as  we  confine  our  attention  to  any  one  trade,  the  seasonal 
fluctuations  in  the  demand  for  labour  seem  to  be  not  only  inevitable, 
but  also  without  effective  remedy.  But  it  is  one  of  the  discoveries 
of  the  Poor  Law  Commission  that  there  is  practically  no  seasonal 

*  Compare  Chart  EI. 

'"Seasonal  Trades,"  Sidney  Webb,  Preface,  p.  viii. 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  $1 

fluctuation  in  the  demand  for  labour  in  the  community  as  a  whole. 
Though  there  is  a  slack  season  in  nearly  all  trades,  this  occurs  at 
different  parts  of  the  year.  There  is,  as  the  Board  of  Trade,  from 
accurate  statistics  of  the  past  decade,  is  able  positively  to  testify,  no 
month  in  the  year  in  which  some  great  industry  is  not  at  its  very  slack- 
est, and  equally  no  month  in  the  year  in  which  some  great  industry 
is  not  at  its  very  busiest."  ^ 

There  is  unquestionably  a  fundamental  difference  between 
the  industries  of  England  and  those  of  America.  We  have 
a  much  larger  number  of  persons  engaged  in  outdoor,  extractive 
industries.  In  other  words,  we  have  more  people  producing 
raw  materials,  while  England  is  principally  engaged  in  working 
up  raw  materials  into  finished  products,  and  in  trade  and  com- 
merce. Our  agriculture,  particularly  in  our  grain  and  meat 
areas,  is  a  highly  seasonal  industry  employing  a  multitude  of 
people  in  the  summer  months  and  particularly  in  the  autumn, 
for  whom  there  is  no  work  in  the  winter.  Our  extensive  railway 
construction  and  repair  work,  and  construction  work  in  general, 
is  regularly  checked  by  the  severity  of  our  northern  winters, 
while  our  manufactures  are  so  closely  related  to  our  extractive 
industries  that  many  of  them  have  at  least  acquired  a  habit 
of  reducing  their  production  during  the  winter. 

5.  Irregular  Fluctuations  in  the  Demand  for  Labor 

There  are  a  number  of  types  of  irregular  employment  fluctua- 
tions within  the  busy  and  dull  seasons.  They  are  produced 
by  a  variety  of  causes.  In  some  cases  their  causes  do  not  seem 
to  be  within  the  employer's  control,  in  others  they  can  be  traced 
directly  to  his  policies  of  management. 

Oyster  canning  furnishes  a  striking  case  of  the  first  type. 
We  have  already  shown  that  the  oyster  industry  is  highly  sea- 
sonal. It  is  not  only  seasonal,  but  also  irregular.  The  irregu- 
larity is  due  to  the  facts  that  the  actual  catch  of  oysters  is 
extremely  variable,  and  that  the  oyster  is  highly  perishable 
in  warm  weather.  The  canning  must  depend  upon  the  catch- 
ing, which  in  turn  depends  upon  the  weather  and  other  factors. 
1  "Prevention  of  Destitution,"  Sidney  Webb,  p.  124. 


52  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

A  few  days  of  storm  will  bring  all  of  the  canneries  to  a  dead 
stop,  while  in  good  weather,  when  the  boats  are  coming  in  with 
large  loads,  work  may  begin  as  early  as  four  in  the  morning  and 
last  twelve  or  thirteen  hours.  If  the  canner  sends  out  his 
own  boats,  he  is  dependent  only  on  the  regularity  of  the  catch ; 
but  if  he  buys  from  fishermen,  he  frequently  finds  them  holding 
their  oysters  for  higher  prices.  Sometimes  he  closes  down 
untii  they  reduce  their  prices.  Oyster  canning  is  so  irregular, 
for  the  shuckers  especially,  that  they  "  are  often  at  work  for 
an  hour,  idle  half  an  hour,  and  then  at  work  again ;  or  they  may 
have  two,  three,  or  four  hours  of  steady  work  and  then  be  idle 
the  rest  of  the  day."  ^  Throughout  the  season,  therefore,  the 
number  of  days  or  hours  worked  is  in  constant  variation. 

Much  irregular  employment  results  from  employers^  efforts 
to  keep  down  their  production  costs  and  thereby  increase  their 
profits.  In  some  cases  they  attract  more  labor  to  their  locaUty 
than  they  can  ever  employ  at  one  time,  and  keep  many  more 
persons  on  their  pay  roll  than  they  can  ever  use  at  one  time, 
even  in  a  rush  period,  because  the  presence  of  a  large  Jabor 
surplus  keeps  down  wages,  prevents  unionism,  and  insures 
them  plenty  of  help  when  they  have  a  rush  of  work.  The 
friction  between  labor  and  capital  on  the  Pacific  coast  has  been 
made  particularly  bitter  by  the  workers'  conviction  that  their 
employers  are  trying  to  attract  surplus  labor  to  the  coast  in 
order  to  break  up  the  unions,  and  then  force  down  wages.  In 
other  cases,  as  we  have  already  pointed  out,  employers  economize 
in  interest,  insurance,  and  other  costs  by  bringing  the  date  of 
production  as  close  as  possible  to  the  date  of  sale. 

The  cotton  and  steel  industries  have  apparently  operated  on 
the  labor  reserve  principle  more  extensively  than  many  other 
lines  of  business.  The  cotton  mills  keep  a  surplus  of  labor  on 
their  pay  rolls  with  the  double  object  of  keeping  wages  down 
and  having  plenty  of  labor  on  hand  when  rush  orders  are  ob- 
tained. In  order  to  hold  the  labor  surplus,  each  worker  is 
given  employment  part  of  the  time.      The   jobs  are  passed 

•  Report  on  Woman  and  Child  Wage  Earners,  United  States  Senate  Document 
No.  64s,  6ist  Congress,  2d  Session,  1913,  Vol.  18,  p.  46. 


THE  DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  53 

around.     All  of  them  work  part  of  the  time,  and  none  work  all 
the  time.^ 

The  figures  furnished  by  federal  investigators  show  that  the 
actual  weekly  income  received  by  a  family  in  the  mills  is  almost 
never  the  same  as  their  average  weekly  income.  In  other  words, 
the  weekly  income  is  subject  to  violent  fluctuations  of  amounts 
from  week  to  week.  For  instance,  a  typical  family  earned 
$25.45  one  week,  $14.85  the  next,  and  $29  the  third  week. 
There  were  only  two  weeks  in  the  year  when  its  actual  weekly 
income  was  within  $2  of  its  average  weekly  income.  There 
were  five  weeks  when  it  was  below  $20 ;  there  were  seven  weeks 
when  it  was  over  $30.  One  week  it  earned  $37.36;  another, 
$14.85.  Another  family  fluctuated  from  $6.05  a  week  to  $18, 
with  an  average  of  $13.65 ;  while  a  third  family's  income 
ranged  from  $9.25  to  $21.95,  with  an  average  of  $15.97.  The 
sixteen  families  whose   incomes  are  presented  in  detail  in  the 

1  These  conditions  are  not  confined  to  America.  J.  S.  Poyntz  says  in  Webb's 
"Seasonal  Trades,"  igi2,  p.  60,  in  a  discussion  of  English  employment  conditions: 

"The  recklessness  or  selfishness  of  the  employer,  of  course,  often  causes  an  un- 
necessary amount  of  irregularity  of  employment.  There  are  many  trades  where  the 
employer  undoubtedly  finds  it  to  his  advantage  to  keep  a  large  fringe  of  superfluous 
labour  attached  to  his  business  in  case  of  an  extra  demand.  He  keeps  them  by 
sharing  out  carefully  among  them  all  whatever  work  there  is.  They  are  encouraged 
under  penalty  of  being  ignored  in  the  future  to  sit  about  all  daj'  near  the  ofiBce 
ready  to  be  called,  but  are  paid  nothing  except  for  the  time  they  are  actually  occu- 
pied. This  is  conspicuously  the  case  in  dock  labour,  sweated  industries,  and  many 
women's  trades  such  as  jam-making,  box-making,  and  the  manufacture  of  aerated 
water.  Furthermore,  the  foreman  or  giver-out  of  work  finds  it  to  his  advantage 
to  be  always  conferring  a  favour  upon  the  man  he  employs,  and  a  very  marked 
favour  upon  those  whom  he  employs  frequently  and  constantly.  This  we  believe 
to  be  the  real  objection  to  the  schemes  for  diminishing  the  irregularity  of  employ- 
ment in  the  docks  and  warehouses  of  Liverpool  by  an  association  among  the  em- 
ployers of  labour,  so  ably  and  powerfully  urged  by  leading  men  of  that  city  for  many 
years.  The  men  responsible  for  getting  the  work  done  are  afraid  to  give  the  men 
security  of  tenure  for  fear  it  should  weaken  their  power  over  them.  In  another 
town  the  same  report  states  that  the  manager  of  the  gas  undertaking  said  that  to 
dovetail  the  unskilled  labour  needs  of  corporation  departments  into  each  other  in 
order  to  secure  constant  work  for  the  men  would  be  absolutely  subversive  of  dis- 
cipline !  In  so  far  as  such  an  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  employers  is  responsible  for 
irregularity  of  employment  the  best  remedy  is  probably  some  form  of  penalisation 
for  excessive  use  of  seasonal  and  casual  labour  or  of  preferential  treatment  as  a 
reward  for  the  regular  employment."  Cf.  also  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of 
Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chap.  V. 


54  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

report  were  selected  as  typical  families,  among  the  best  at 
the  mills.  And  yet  in  the  entire  sixteen  families  one  can  find 
but  two  cases  where  the  actual  weekly  income  was  the  same  two 
weeks  in  succession.  Out  of  8i6  weeks'  work  performed  by 
these  families  during  this  year,  there  are  but  five  weeks  alto- 
gether where  families  had  the  same  income  for  successive  weeks. 
And  the  figures  were  obtained  from  mills  which  "were  not 
affected  by  the  business  depression,  but  ran  full  schedule  time."  ^ 

The  steel  industry  is  extremely  sensitive  to  the  various  influ- 
ences, economic,  political,  or  psychological,  which  affect  the 
pulse  of  industry.-  The  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statis- 
tics, after  stating  that  the  figures  it  gives  "may  be  taken  as 
fully  representative  of  general  conditions  in  the  industry,"  ^ 
shows  an  almost  constant  fluctuation  in  the  volume  of  employ- 
ment from  July,  1913,  to  June,  1915,  a  period  of  gradual  but 
unsteady  expansion  in  the  business.  Much  of  the  fluctuation 
is  due,  however,  to  the  companies'  production  policies,  rather 
than  to  economic  forces  over  which  they  have  no  control. 

The  United  States  Senate  report  on  the  steel  industry  agrees 
with  this  conclusion.     It  says : 

"It  might  be  expected  that  in  an  industry  where  there  was  so  much 
pressure  for  Sunday  and  overtime  work  there  would  be  constant 
employment  throughout  the  year.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  the 
iron  and  steel  industry  is  more  irregular  in  its  operation  and  shows 
greater  fluctuations  in  its  labor  force  during  the  course  of  the  year 
than  any  of  the  larger  manufacturing  industries  whose  demand  is  not 
seasonal.  This  high  degree  of  irregularity  of  employment  was  the 
subject  of  more  frequent  complaint  on  the  part  of  the  workmen  than 
any  other  condition  connected  with  the  industry.  Some  of  the 
managers  and  superintendents  also  consider  it  one  of  the  greatest 
obstacles  to  securing  a  highly  eflBcient  working  force. 

1  Report  on  Woman  and  Child  Wage  Earners,  United  States  Senate  Document 
No.  64s,  6ist  Congress,  2d  Session,  1913,  Vol.  16,  pp.  153-171. 

*  Cf.  notes  in  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  .\ugust  10,  Vol.  84,  pp.  6431, 
6432,  6429,  for  typical  reactions  of  steel  and  oil  industries  to  changing  industrial 
conditions. 

'Wages  and  Hours  of  Labor  in  the  Iron  and  Steel  Industry,  1907  to  1915. 
Bulletin  218,  pp.  7,  9,  12,  32. 


THE   DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  55 

"Both  the  overtime  work  and  the  irregularity  of  operation  are  in 
large  part  results  of  the  same  cause,  which  is  one  of  the  fundamental 
policies  in  the  present  day  management  of  the  industry.  This  policy 
consists  in  running  a  department  at  top  speed  and  under  the  heaviest 
pressure  while  there  is  an  active  demand  for  its  particular  products 
and  then  shutting  it  down  as  soon  as  the  market  becomes  weak. 
During  these  periods  of  heav>'  pressure  the  production  is  large  and 
the  immediate  costs  frequently  are  far  below  normal,  presenting  a 
fine  showing  for  the  mill  when  only  a  single  month's  cost  sheets  are 
considered.  When  the  mill  is  shut  down,  however,  not  only  do  the 
heavy  fixed  charges  continue  and  the  machines  depreciate,  but  the 
workmen  lose  their  skill  and  efficiency  rapidly  and  the  working 
organization  is  frequently  injured  by  the  loss  of  the  best  workmen  who 
leave  to  seek  places  elsewhere.  Some  of  the  best  managers  assert 
that  the  losses  from  these  causes  more  than  counterbalance  the  gains 
secured  during  the  months  of  rush  work,  and  they  are  confident 
that  they  could  make  a  better  showing  in  economy  of  production 
for  the  year  as  a  whole  if  the  mills  were  operated  regularly  at  a 
moderate  pace."  ^ 

This  alternation  of  rushes  and  idleness  seems  the  more  un- 
necessary, since  production  is  so  highly  concentrated  in  the 
steel  industry.  In  most  industries  centralization  results  in 
employment  for  a  smaller  number  of  workers  but  steadier 
work  for  them.  The  steel  industry  in  America  seems  to  proceed 
on  an  opposite  policy. 

Many  industries,  and  particularly  many  plants  in  a  host 
of  different  industries,  have  frequent  periods  either  of  rush  or 
of  idleness  because  of  the  success  or  failure  of  their  selling  de- 
partments in  getting  orders.  The  degree  of  regularity  in  the 
flow  of  orders  and  of  raw  materials  in  different  establishments 
varies  with  the  efficiency  of  the  management  and  the  care  given 
to  steadying  the  business.  Smaller  establishments,  and  those 
dealing  in  cheap  goods  sold  in  holiday  trade  or  spring  or  autumn 
selling  seasons  and  those  catering  to  a  fashion-seeking  trade, 

•United  States  Congress,  Senate  Document  No.  no,  Report  on  Conditions  of 
Employment  in  the  Iron  and  Steel  Industry  in  the  United  States,  Vol.  Ill ;  Work- 
ing Conditions  and  the  Relations  of  Employers  and  Employees,  62d  Congress, 
ist  Session,  1911,  Washington,  1913,  pp.  21,  22. 


56  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

are  especially  susceptible  to  these  short-time,  irregular  fluctua- 
tions of  business. 

In  some  industries  days  are  frequently  lost  in  excessively 
-hot  weather ;  in  others,  during  extreme  cold.  In  iron  foundries, 
for  example,  the  men  often  refuse  to  work  on  hot  days  because 
of  the  danger  of  heat  prostration  while  carrying  molten  metal 
during  the  "pouring  off."  In  candy  factories  time  is  sometimes 
lost  during  hot  weather  because  the  heat  makes  it  difficult  to 
handle  the  candy.  The  one  case  is  typical  of  industries  where 
the  heat  affects  the  workmen;  the  other,  of  industries  where 
the  weather  affects  the  goods.  In  the  building  trades,  rain, 
snow,  and  excessive  heat  or  cold  make  work  impossible  from 
time  to  time.  Sawmills  are  often  compelled  to  shut  down 
temporarily  because  of  low  water,  which  may  be  relieved  by  a 
heavy  rain  or  the  gradual  accumulation  of  water  above  the 
dam.  Mines  frequently  lose  days  because  of  car  shortage  or 
the  presence  of  water  in  working  levels.  Shortage  of  materials 
or  of  coal,  machinery  breakdowns,  lack  of  cars  for  shipping, 
and  similar  causes,  disturb  production  frequently. 

Another  form  of  irregularity  is  found  in  part-time  work.  The 
reports  on  employment  abound  in  references  to  it.  Employees 
are  kept  on  the  pay  roll 

"but  have  work  only  for  a  few  hours  a  day  with  two  or  three  days 
a  week  entirely  unemployed."  "It  is  this  short-time  work  which 
plays  havoc  with  the  annual  income  of  the  steady  worker  and  which 
is  seldom,  if  ever,  balanced  by  the  short  period  of  overtime  work 
and  increased  earning."^ 

The  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission  pointed 
out  the  fact  that  though  the  number  of  employees  in  the  paper 
box  industry  decreased  but  lo  per  cent  in  the  dull  season,  the 
employers'  wage  bill  decreased  30  per  cent,  and  the  average 
weekly  wage  of  194  women  studied  fell  from  $8.13  in  the  rush 
season  to  $5.68  in  the  dull  season.-  They  showed  that  in  the 
confectionery  industry,  the  regular  weekly  schedule  of  hours 

•  Fourth  Report,  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Committee,  Vol.  11,  Appen- 
dix IV. 

*Ibid.,  AppendLx  IV,  pp.  252,  253. 


THE   DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  57 

was  shorter  in  the  slack  than  in  the  rush  season,  and  often 
the  actual  hours  worked  were  even  less  than  those  scheduled.^ 
The  Massachusetts  Minimum  Wage  Commission  in  its  decree 
on  wages  in  the  brush  industry  of  Massachusetts,  says : 

"In  a  much  larger  number  of  cases  the  difficulty  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  the  worker  does  not  or  cannot  work  the  full  time.  Where 
the  cause  of  this  condition  rests  with  the  voluntary  action  of  the  girl, 
not  superinduced  by  some  physical  or  mental  condition  fairly  charge- 
able to  the  employment,  it  may  perhaps  be  disregarded  in  an  inquiry 
of  this  character.  Where,  however,  the  part  time  is  chargeable  to  the 
industry,  either  for  reasons  like  those  suggested  or  because  under  the 
organization  of  the  industry  work  cannot  be  supplied  to  the  worker 
sufficient  to  keep  her  employed  full  time,  it  is  a  factor  that  cannot  be 
overlooked  by  a  body  charged  with  the  duty  of  fixing  minimum 
rates  (of  wages).  .  .  .  The  question  of  short  time  seems  to  the 
commissioners,  perhaps,  the  greatest  single  difficulty,  in  connection  with 
the  wage  situation  in  this  and  other  Massachusetts  industries.  .  .  . 

"In  this  connection  the  commission  is  of  the  opinion  that  employers 
should  give  their  best  thought  to  the  problem  of  eliminating  the  great 
irregularity  of  employment  and  reducing  the  striking  amount  of  part 
time  which  marks  the  industry."  ^ 

The  artificial  flower  industry  exhibits  the  same  phenomenon. 

"In  more  than  half  the  shops  the  workers  must  expect  a  dull 
period  of  three  or  four  months  every  year.  Part  time  is  another 
phase  of  the  problem.  Firms  may  report  that  they  keep  their 
employees  'all  the  year  round,'  and  yet  the  workers  may  suffer  the 
disadvantages  of  irregularity  by  a  reduction  of  pay  in  dull  weeks. 
For  instance,  a  rose  maker  who  earned  $9  a  week  in  the  busy  season 
was  employed  through  the  dull  summer  months,  but  she  worked  only 
three  days  a  week  with  half  pay,  except  for  an  occasional  week  when 
more  orders  were  received.  Even  then  she  was  paid  $2  less  than  in 
the  winter  for  a  full  week's  work,  a  premium  to  the  firm  for  not '  laying 
her  off."'» 

'  Fourth  Report,  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Committee,  Vol.  11,  Appendix 
IV,  p.  213. 

'  Massachusetts  Minimum  Wage  Commission,  Bulletin  No.  3,  August,  1914, 
PP-  7,  13- 

'  Artificial  Flower  Makers,  Mary  Van  Kleeck,  Russell  Sage  Foundation  Publi- 
cation, New  York,  19 13,  pp.  43-44. 


58  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

The  "extra"  motormen  and  conductors  carried  by  street 
railways  constitute  a  group  of  irregular  employees  which  totals 
tens  of  thousands.  They  are  ordinarily  required  to  report 
twice  or  more  a  day  at  the  barns,  and  are  subject  to  call  at  any 
time,  but  get  "runs"  only  when  the  company  needs  substitutes 
or  extra  cars,  and  during  the  rush  hours  when  the  service  is 
temporarily  augmented.  They  may  work  four  hours  one  day 
and  fourteen  the  next.  At  times  when  the  company  is  short 
of  men  they  may  even  work  more  hours  than  the  car  men  with 
regular  runs.  The  "extras"  are  of  course  awaiting  promotion 
to  a  regular  run,  but  as  their  places  are  steadily  filled  by  new 
"extras"  their  promotion  does  not  decrease  the  number  of  men 
in  this  irregular  occupation.  The  mitigating  feature  in  this  par- 
ticular type  of  irregulars  is  that  each  man  is  awaiting  regular 
work  and  either  leaves  the  street  car  service  or  becomes  a  regular 
man. 

6.   Casual  and  Semi-Casual  Labor  Demand 

Many  irregular  demands  gradually  shade  off  into  casual 
work.  The  various  branches  of  the  contracting  industry- 
exhibit  this  t^-pe  of  irregularity  continuously.  There  are  four 
classes  of  men  hired  for  contracting  work.  Every  contracting 
concern  of  any  size  has  a  relatively  small  group  of  mechanics 
and  laborers  who  work  for  it  all  the  time.  They  are  steady 
employees.  They  are  but  rarely  out  of  work.  They  have 
been  selected  by  the  employer  because  of  their  skill,  reliability, 
and  suitability  to  his  work  and  organization ;  and  they,  in 
turn,  have  attached  themselves  to  this  firm  because  they  have 
found  them  "good  people  to  work  for."  A  certain  degree  of 
compatibility,  industrial  and  personal,  causes  these  permanent 
relations.  '  The  second  type  of  workers  is  a  group  of  mechanics 
and  laborers  who  are  hired  whenever  the  employer  gets  busy 
and  let  go  whenever  his  "jobs"  run  low.  There  is  constant 
change  in  the  personnel  of  this  group.  Many  of  them  work 
more  or  less  frequently  for  the  same  employer.  But  each  man 
works  off  and  on  for  all  or  many  of  the  contractors  in  the  locality, 
or  may  even  go  out  of  town  occasionally  to  work  for  some  out- 
side contractor;   while  each  employer  hires  such  as  he  can  get 


THE   DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  59 

of  the  local  mechanics  and  laborers  whenever  he  requires  an 
enlargement  of  his  labor  force  and  lets  them  go  as  soon  as  the 
job  is  finished.  Certain  firms  may  like  to  get  certain  men 
whenever  possible  and  each  man  has  preferences  among  the 
employers  hiring  in  the  local  labor  market ;  but  there  is  no  per- 
manent relationship  between  individual  concerns  and  individual 
men.  The  workmen  go  on  and  off  the  payroll  in  harmony  with 
the  fluctuations  in  the  employers'  contracts. 

These  men  are  steady  workmen,  in  one  sense  of  the  word. 
They  are  eager  to  work  steadily.  They  will  stay  by  a  job 
until  it  is  finished.  Many  of  them  become  "year  round"  em- 
ployees of  particular  concerns  when  they  get  an  opportunity. 
They  are  competent  and  reliable,  though  probably  not  equal, 
on  the  average,  to  the  group  who  succeed  in  holding  steady  jobs. 
They  are,  as  a  rule,  quite  steadily  employed  during  warm  months, 
and  some  of  them  often  get  more  or  less  work  at  their  trade 
during  the  winter. 

■  A  third  group  are  employed  very  irregularly  during  the  busy 
season  and  not  at  all  during  the  dull  season.  The  contractor 
putting  up  a  building,  and  the  various  sub-contractors  doing 
different  parts  of  the  work,  are  continually  calling  for  men  to 
work  a  few  days,  a  week,  or  two  or  three  weeks.  To-day  it  is 
some  extra  laborers  for  the  excavating,  or  wheeling  sand  or 
mortar  for  the  masons  or  bricklayers ;  to-morrow  it  is  rough 
carpenters ;  the  next  day  laborers  to  clear  away  debris.  Every 
large  contracting  job  employs  more  or  less  of  this  short-time 
help,  and  expects  a  supply  of  labor  to  be  continually  on  hand 
to  meet  its  short-time  demands;  then  cast  to  one  side  until 
needed  again.  This  irregular  demand,  which  offers  employ- 
ment for  varying  periods,  sometimes  running  into  weeks,  or 
even  a  couple  of  months,  gradually  shades  off  into  a  purely 
casual  demand  for  men  to  work  days  or  even  hours  and  be  paid 
off  every  night.  The  contracting  industry  offers  a  good  deal 
of  this  most  irregular  of  all  kinds  of  employment.^ 

'  The  use  of  a  fringe  of  irregular  and  casual  workers  is  of  course  characteristic 
of  seasonal  trades  in  all  countries.  The  facts  are  well  stated  by  J.  A.  Poyntz,  in  a 
discussion  of  the  English  situation : 

"In  general  we  iind  that  tlie  problems  of  unemployment  in  seasonal  trades  are 


6o  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

The  last  two  types  of  demand  are  the  ones  we  wish  to  describe 
particularly  at  this  time  —  short-time  irregular  demands  and 
casual  demands.  Each  of  them  is  an  important  cause  of  "under- 
employment," each  of  them  demoralizes  the  efl&ciency  of  many 
workmen ;  each  of  them  both  produces  and  caters  to  one  of  the 
most  demorahzed  groups  of  workmen  in  our  labor  supply.  Dock 
labor  is  one  of  the  most  important  types  of  casual  employment. 

"In  New  York  harbor  there  are  from  40,000  to  50,000  men  employed 
in  loading  and  unloading  vessels.  Of  this  number  it  has  been  esti- 
mated that  probably  only  about  one  half  are  working  on  any  one 
day,  and  the  number  employed  fluctuates  violently.  .  .  .  Few  men 
are  steadily  employed.  They  are  hired  by  the  hour  and  when  the 
work  of  one  gang  is  completed  they  are  immediately  discharged,  be 
it  one,  two,  or  three  hours,  or  two  or  three  days  after  they  have 
begun."  "These  longshoremen  cannot  be  said  to  be  unemployed, 
their  trouble  is  unsteady  employment.  They  work  off  and  on.  They 
may  wait  around  a  dock  half  a  day  and  get  but  an  hour  or  two  of 
work.  Other  days  there  will  be  no  work,  and  then  again  there  will 
be  a  stretch  of  a  few  days  or  a  week  when  work  will  be  carried  on  day 
and  night.  One  week  may  bring  two  or  three  dollars,  another  twenty 
or  thirty.  How  shall  their  families  adjust  their  Uving  to  such  an 
income?"  ^ 

of  much  the  same  nature  as  that  of  unemploj^nent  in  general.  There  is  usually, 
though  not  always,  the  nucleus  of  permanent,  regular  workers,  sometimes  large 
enough  to  account  for  the  large  majority  of  the  hands  employed  and  sometimes 
reduced  to  a  negligible  fraction.  By  their  side  are  the  irregular  workers,  hired  for  a 
few  hours,  a  day,  a  week,  a  month,  or  part  of  a  year.  The  tendency  of  each  trade 
is  to  keep  attached  to  itself  in  employment,  underemployment,  or  unemployment, 
a  sufficient  number  of  hands  to  meet  all  possible  demands  of  the  trade.  Sudden 
rushes  produced  by  wealth,  fashion,  or  the  exigencies  of  trade  are  met  by  taking  on  a 
large  number  of  these  workers  who  stand  ready,  and  dismissing  them  when  the  spurt 
is  over.  Thus  reserves  accumulate  around  each  trade,  forming  a  permanent  surplus 
of  irregular  and  casual  labour.  This  surplus  again  contributes  to  the  intensification 
of  the  evils  of  irregular  employment  by  relieving  the  employer  and  the  public  of  any 
anxiety  as  to  the  supply  of  labour  to  meet  their  often  capricious  demands.  Pain- 
fully long  hours  and  frightful  pressure  of  work  characterize  the  'season'  in  certain 
industries,  not  so  much  because  these  are  really  necessary  as  because  an  overfull 
labour  market  makes  heedfulness  superfluous  and  makes  it  possible  for  the  employer 
to  meet  the  most  tyrannous  and  thoughtless  demands  of  his  clientele."  —  "Seasonal 
Trades,"  edited  by  Sidney  Webb,  p.  54. 

'  Report  of  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment, 
191 1,  p.  48.     Cf.  also  "The  Dock  Workers  of  New  York  City,"  Final  Report  In- 


THE   DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  6l 

Similar  conditions  obtain  to  a  greater  or  less  extent  at  the 
other  ocean  ports  and  the  Great  Lakes  ports. 

Department  stores,  ten  cent  stores,  and  many  other  mercan- 
tile establishments  hire  much  short-time  help,  especially  at 
the  holiday  season,  to  meet  rushes  of  business,  to  help  unpack 
or  ship  goods,  assist  in  rearranging  the  store,  and  other  extra 
work.  Factories  call  for  casual  help  to  assist  in  unloading  cars 
of  coal  or  raw  material,  to  help  on  such  emergency  work,  such 
as  cleaning  up  and  snow  shoveling ;  in  the  shipping  rooms  dur- 
ing rush  seasons  or  on  rush  orders  and  as  teamsters'  helpers 
when  handling  unusually  heavy  packages.  Express  and  transfer 
companies  hire  extra  help  in  rush  seasons,  such  as  the  Christ- 
mas holidays;  during  the  weeks  in  spring  and  fall  when  extra 
large  numbers  of  householders  are  moving;  and  at  all  times 
during  the  year  whenever  they  are  unusually  busy  or  have  unusu- 
ally heavy  objects  to  handle.  Fuel  companies  hire  extra  men 
intermittently  through  the  autumn  and  winter  as  "coal  car- 
riers"; advertising  companies,  theaters,  and  business  houses 
hire  casual  help  to  carry  signs  on  their  backs  or  distribute  bills 
or  samples ;  publishers  of  city  directories  hire  short-time  help 
to  collect  their  information,  and  a  large  number  of  other  em- 
ployers offer  casual  or  semi-casual  employment  at  various  times 
through  the  year.  Caterers,  hotels,  and  restaurants  hire  a  good 
deal  of  casual  help  for  waiting  on  table  at  banquets  and  other 
social  functions,  paying  the  help  by  the  hour.  A  typical  case 
is  described  by  a  Massachusetts  court.^ 

"  It  was  a  part  of  the  regular  business  of  the  employer  to  provide 
and  serve  banquets,  but  for  such  service  no  men  were  regularly  em- 
ployed. The  custom  of  the  catering  business  is  that  such  banquets 
are  served  by  waiters  secured  for  the  particular  occasion.  Such 
waiters  might  work  for  different  employers  on  the  same  day  or  for 
many  different  employers  on  successive  days." 

dustrial  Relations  Commission ;  Vol.  Ill  pp.  2051-2212;  "The  Longshoremen," 
Charles  B.  Barnes. 

1  Joseph  C.  Gaynor,  v.  T.  D.  Cook  and  Co.,  Inc.,  and  Standard  Accident  Insurance 
Co.,  Insurers,  Massachusetts  Supreme  Judicial  Court,  104  N.  E.  ,339.  Many 
other  interesting  cases  of  casual  labor  will  be  found  in  the  court  decisions  which 
construe  the  words  "casual  labor"  in  workmen's  compensation  cases. 


62  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Some  of  the  workers  who  take  this  casual  work  have  other  occu- 
pations during  the  day ;  others  depend  upon  it  for  a  hveUhood. 

There  are  many  persons  whose  occupations  are  those  of  wage 
earners  and  whose  method  of  earning  a  livelihood  is  more  or 
less  casual,  who  are  not  casual  employees  at  all.  One  will  find  a 
number  of  public  stenographers  in  a  large  city  who  earn  their 
living  by  doing  "jobs  of  stenography" ;  teamsters  who  depend 
upon  miscellaneous  teaming  work  for  employment ;  chimney 
sweeps  who  work  at  building  after  building  throughout  the 
year.  These  persons  are  in  reality  not  wage  earners  at  all. 
They  are  contractors.  They  carry  on  their  trades  as  the  lawyer 
or  the  doctor  carries  on  his  profession  —  by  catering  to  the 
needs  of  a  succession  of  clients.  Sometimes  they  are  paid  by 
"  the  job  " ;  sometimes  by  the  hour.  But  they  are  not  employees 
of  the  person  they  work  for.  They  are  independent  contractors, 
as  far  as  that  person  is  concerned. 

In  addition  to  the  casual  demands  incident  to  business  activ- 
ity, there  is  a  large  casual  demand  in  the  spring  and  fall  for 
men  for  housecleaning,  garden  work,  and  the  grading  or  improve- 
ment of  lawns  and  yards.  The  domestic  demand  for  casuals 
is  more  or  less  continuous  through  the  year,  but  has  two  dis- 
tinct rush  periods  in  May  and  June  and  in  September,  October, 
and  November.  There  is  little  demand  in  the  northern  states 
for  male  domestic  casuals  in  the  winter,  and  they  are  forced 
to  depend  then  upon  the  calls  of  municipalities,  railroads, 
street  railways,  and  business  houses  for  snow  shovelers.  Women 
are  in  demand  all  through  the  year  to  do  day  work  in  homes 
{i.e.,  washing,  ironing,  and  cleaning),  but  there  is  a  much  larger 
demand  for  them  at  housecleaning  time  than  at  any  other  time 
in  the  year. 

In  general,  casual  work  is  a  source  of  labor  demoralization*'^ 
But  some  is  not.  Many  of  the  girls  who  take  casual  jobs  in 
factories  and  mercantile  establishments  during  the  hohdays 
are  women  and  girls  who  do  not  ordinarily  work  for  a  living 
but  earn  some  holiday  money  in  this  way.  Others  are  girls 
temporarily  unemployed.  Many  of  the  men  who  take  casual 
work  with  factories,  fuel  and  express  companies,  and  other 


THE   DEMAND   FOR   LABOR  63 

industrial  concerns  are  temporarily  out  of  work  and  do  this 
until  they  are  able  to  get  steady  employment.  A  large  propor- 
tion of  America's  high  school  and  college  students  earn  money 
to  help  keep  themselves  in  school  at  casual  work.  What  many 
housewives  earn  by  intermittent  sewing,  washing,  and  cleaning 
pieces  out  the  earnings  of  the  husband  and  either  permits  a 
little  saving  or  a  more  adequate  livelihood.  Stenographers 
temporarily  accepting  "substitute"  work  while  out  of  steady 
employment  are  doing  casual  work,  but  are  not  casuals.  The 
male  casuals  who  fill  the  domestic  demands  are  in  most  cases 
"professional  casuals."  They  never  work  regularly  if  they 
can  help  it.  They  are  deteriorated.  Few  men  with  self-respect 
and  ambition  like  to  do  the  more  or  less  servile  work  offered  by 
this  type  of  employment.  The  women  who  do  day  work,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  in  many  cases  worthy  women.  But  there 
is  an  element  among  them  who  exhibit  many  of  the  character- 
istics of  the  male  casual.  The  subtle  danger  of  casual  work, 
which  silently  accomplishes  serious  results,  is  that  it  develops  a 
habit  of  irregular  work  in  those  who  depend  upon  it  for  a  livelihood. 
It  is  easy  to  cultivate  a  taste  for  leisure}  Men  easily  learn  to 
like  frequent  idle  days.  The  persons  whose  lives  are  centered 
about  other  interests,  Hke  the  student  or  the  housewife,  can 
resist  its  baneful  influence.  Their  minds  are  inaccessible  to  the 
temptations  which  casual  labor  brings.  But  to  the  laborer 
who  learns  to  support  himself  by  odd  jobs  casual  labor  is  as 
dangerous  as  the  tentacles  of  a  devilfish.^ 

The  demand  for  casual  labor  is  naturally  an  excessively 
fluctuating  demand.  Each  employer  seeks  for  help  only  long 
enough  to  help  himself  out  of  an  emergency.  When  confronted 
by  some  unusual  situation  he  hires  extra  help  to  get  out  of  it, 
and    then    immediately    discharges    the   help.     The    workman 

'One  of  the  best  American  discussions  of  this  subject  is  "One  Thousand 
Homeless  Men,"  Alice  Solenberger,  Chap.  VIII.  Cf.  also  "Unemployment,  \ 
Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chap.  VI.  Also  "Unemployment,  A  Social 
Study,"  S.  Rowntree  and  B.  Lasker,  Chap.  IX. 

'  The  subject  of  casual  labor  is  more  fully  treated  in  Chapter  XIII.  The  refer- 
ences for  that  chapter  will  furnish  the  reader  with  much  additional  information 
about  the  casuals  in  America,  Canada,  and  England. 


64  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

who  must  depend  upon  "picking  up  an  odd  job"  necessarily 
leads  a  very  uncertain  existence.  It  is  not  strange,  then,  that 
the  men  who  seek  casual  work  are  just  as  uncertain  as  the  work 
is.  Employers  who  complain  at  the  unreliability,  incompetence, 
and  indifference  of  casual  laborers  would  do  well  to  remember 
that  the  chances  of  employment  which  they  offer  are  as  unreli- 
able as  the  men  who  accept  them,  and  that  the  livelihood  these 
men  obtain  is  as  insufficient  for  their  needs  as  the  work  they 
perform  is  insufl&cient  to  satisfy  the  employer.^ 

7.  Cyclical  Fluctuations  in  Labor  Demand 

The  types  of  fluctuation  of  labor  demand  discussed  thus 
far  occur  in  all  years.  They  are  normal,  or  characteristic, 
conditions  in  our  industrial  system.  But  at  times  we  also  have 
abnormal  fluctuations  of  labor  demand.  These  have  often  been 
called  cyclical  fluctuations.^  These  waves  of  undue  prosperity 
followed  by  extreme  industrial  depression  have  occurred, 
roughly,  some  ten  years  apart  during  the  last  hundred  years, 
with  unusually  severe  disturbances  in  1837,  1873,  1893,  and 
1907-08.  In  most  of  them  a  period  of  unusual  production 
has  been  followed  by  a  sudden  collapse  of  our  industrial  and 
financial  system,  followed  by  a  longer  or  shorter  period  of 
gradual  recovery  to  a  normal  condition.  A  sudden  sickness 
seized  industry,  followed  by  a  period  of  inactivity  and  of  gradual 
convalescence. 

The  fact  that  there  are  cyclical  booms  which  increase  the 
demand  for  labor  almost  as  much  above  normal  as  the  depres- 
sions drag  it  below  normal  has  not  always  been  as  clearly  appre- 
ciated as  the  fact  of  cyclical  depression.  The  public  conscious- 
ness is  not  so  keen  to  recognize  boom  conditions  as  panic  condi- 
tions. It  happens  again  and  agam  that  a  period  of  abnormal 
business  activity  is  mistaken  for  a  permanent  raising  of  the 

•  Cf.  also  "A  Clearing  House  for  Labor,"  D.  D.  Lescohier,  Atlantic  Monthly, 
June,  igi8. 

'  Cf .  Third  Report,  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Un- 
employment;  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge, 
Chap.  rV. ;    "Unemployment  in  Lancashire,"  Chapman  and  Hallsworth,  Chap.  VII. 


THE   DEMAND   FOR   LABOR  65 

level  of  general  well-being.  Human  nature  will  fight  hard 
against  giving  way  to  pessimism  in  days  of  adversity,  but 
yields  easily  to  over-optimism  in  days  of  prosperity.  Even 
conservative  business  men  are  loath  to  admit  that  good  times 
will  not  last  indefinitely.  The  boom,  with  its  abundant  oppor- 
tunities of  employment,  is  suddenly  followed  by  stoppage  of 
industry  and  the  laying  off  even  of  regular  employees.  The 
warnings  of  far-sighted  men  that  speculation  and  investment 
were  going  too  far  are  disregarded,  until  the  crisis  comes,  like 
"an  acute  malady." 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  make  any  study  of  crises  and  depres- 
sions. We  will  not  undertake  a  discussion  of  their  causes  or 
their  treatment.  We  accept  them,  as  we  accept  the  irregular 
demands  for  casuals,  or  the  displacement  of  workmen  by  ma- 
chinery, as  facts  of  the  labor  market.  We  see  that  in  1837, 
1873,  i893)  3,nd  190S,  they  threw  multitudes  of  people  out  of 
employment.  We  see  that  in  a  number  of  other  years  they 
produced  lesser  depressions  in  the  labor  market.  They  are  a 
part  of  our  subject  only  inasmuch  as  they  are  forces  which  pro- 
foundly affect  at  times  the  volume  of  employment. 

Webb  speaks  of  them  as  "of  all  causes  leading  to  workmen  being 
discharged,  (the  one  which)  stands  out  conspicuously."  "These 
waves  of  depression,  affecting  all  trades  in  all  countries,  show  them- 
selves in  a  diminished  volume  of  production,  involving,  in  the  United 
Kingdom  alone,  the  dismissal  of  hundreds  of  thousands  of  workmen, 
from  absolutely  no  fault  or  shortcoming  of  their  own.  And  when,  in 
such  a  time  of  depression,  a  workman  loses  his  place,  the  Trade  Union 
records  prove  that,  even  the  best  workmen,  with  the  most  unblemished 
of  characters,  may  possibly  be  many  months  before  they  can  regain 
employment."  ^ 

The  effects  of  booms,  crises,  and  depressions  upon  the  Ameri- 
can labor  market  can  be  clearly  seen  in  the  phenomena  of  1893, 
1907,  and  1914.  In  1893,  after  a  period  of  rapid  expansion, 
particularly  marked  by  the  process  of  consolidation  of  competi- 
tors   into    large    corporations    and    combinations,    a    financial 

1  "Prevention  of  Destitution,"  Sidney  Webb,  p.  iii. 
F 


66  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

crisis  disorganized  our  whole  trade  and  industrial  life.  Nearly 
six  hundred  banks  failed  during  1893,  commercial  failures  were 
nearly  double  those  of  1S92,  several  important  railway  systems 
passed  into  the  hands  of  receivers,  and  industries  were  closed 
in  every  locality.  Want  and  distress  were  general.  It  was 
necessary  to  provide  relief  work  and  charitable  assistance  for 
the  unemployed  in  most  large  cities,  and  widespread  unrest 
evidenced  itself  in  more  or  less  violent  demonstrations  of  the 
working  classes.  Millions  were  thrown  out  of  employment, 
wages  fell,  work  was  scarce,  and  many  mechanics  were  not  em- 
ployed more  than  three  days  a  week  for  from  three  to  five  years. 
In  1907,  we  had  another  acute  disturbance.  The  revival 
of  business  which  began  about  1898  was  stimulated  by  a  greatly 
increased  supply  of  money. 

"Again  the  business  world  lost  its  customary  caution  and  plunged 
into  reckless  excesses.  By  1906,  the  first  signs  of  approaching  dis- 
aster were  visible.  .  .  .  When  the  banks  began  to  contract  their 
loans  in  March,  1Q07,  there  resulted  the  so-caUed  'rich  men's  panic' 
...  In  October  several  banks  and  trust  companies  feU  under 
suspicion.  Runs  began  upon  these  trust  companies.  .  .  .  Distrust 
spread  from  New  York  to  the  rest  of  the  country." 

The  boom  suddenly  broke,  industry  was  again  paralyzed, 
wage  earners  in  great  numbers  were  thrown  out  of  employ- 
ment, and  1908  was  a  year  of  abnormal  unemplojonent. 

In  1914,  a  depression  resulted  from  the  outbreak  of  the  Euro- 
pean war.  Thousands  of  employers,  uncertain  as  to  the  dura- 
tion of  the  war,  "marked  time"  while  they  watched  the  course 
of  events  and  tried  to  diagnose  the  economic  situation.  Inter- 
national trade  and  finance  also  had  to  be  adjusted  to  the  situa- 
tion. Hundreds  of  thousands  of  employees  suffered  unemploy- 
ment or  reduced  emplo\Tnent  for  several  months  until  business 
resumed  work  on  a  war  basis.  Many  industries  lost  their 
markets  and  never  recovered  them  until  the  war  was  over,  but 
others  soon  obtained  war  orders  and  enlarged  their  operations. 
Labor  had  to  shift  from  crippled  to  prosperous  industries,  or 
remain  unemployed. 


THE   DEMAND   FOR  LABOR  67 

Summary 

It  has  been  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  show  that  the 
demand  for  labor  fluctuates  almost  continuously;  that  some 
persons  are  losing  their  employments  at  all  times,  no  matter 
how  prosperous  is  the  general  condition  of  business.  The 
principal  part  of  the  chapter  has  been  devoted  to  a  discussion 
of  labor  demand  under  normal  industrial  conditions,  and  the 
treatment  of  the  abnormal  conditions  which  obtain  in  times  of 
crisis  and  depression  was  reserved  for  the  closing  pages  of  the 
chapter.  The  chapter  has  not  discussed  unemployment,  nor 
attempted  to  point  out  all  of  the  causes  of  unemployment. 
It  has  been  confined  solely  to  a  study  of  fluctuations  in  industry's 
demand  for  labor.  It  studies  unemployment  only  as  a  result 
of  changes  in  the  amount  of  employment  offered  to  labor  by 
industry'.  In  our  next  chapter  we  consider  unemployment ; 
and  we  there  bring  the  fluctuations  of  labor  demand  into  rela- 
tion with  another  group  of  causes  of  unemployment,  many  of 
which  do  not  directly  arise  out  of  industrial  conditions. 


CHAPTER  III 

OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS   AND   THE   IDLE 

The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  threefold :  to  complete  the 
discussion  of  the  causes  of  unemployment,  to  describe  types  of 
people  found  among  the  unemployed,  and  to  describe  the  effects 
of  unemployment  upon  the  workers,  industry,  and  citizenship. 

I.  Types  of  Unemployment 

There  are  three  main  types  of  unemployment:  irregular 
employment,  underemployment,  and  unemployment.^  It  is 
unfortunate  that  the  term  "unemployment"  has  been  used  to 
cover  all  three  types.  Conforming  to  this  common  usage, 
we  have  used  the  term  "unemployment"  up  to  this  point  as  a 
general  term  designating  occupational  idleness.  But  it  is  now 
necessary  to  analyze  more  thoroughly  the  idleness  of  workers, 
and  to  do  so  we  must  discriminate  between  the  different  types 
of  occupational  idleness  and  their  several  causes.  Henceforth, 
when  referring  simply  to  the  general  fact  that  workers  are  out  of 
work,  we  shall  use  either  the  term  "occupational  idleness"  or 
"non-employment"  as  the  inclusive  term  comprehending  all 
three  types. 

Irregular  employment  exists  when  the  employee,  either 
because  of  an  intermittent  demand  for  his  labor  or  because  of 
his  own  irregularity,  does  not  work  steadily,  but  loses  time 
frequently.  The  building  laborer  who  knows  that  he  cannot 
expect  to  work  six  days  a  week,  or  even  every  week,  and  that 
his  pay  is  bound  to  vary  from  week  to  week,  is  irregularly  em- 
ployed. "Irregular  employment"  is  likewise  the  proper  term 
to  designate  the  experiences  of  the  worker  subjected  to  seasonal 

>  Cf.  "Idleness  as  a  Source  of  Waste,"  Thomas  N.  Carver,  in  "The  Foundations 
of  Prosperity,"  Ely,  Hess,  Leith  and  Carver,  Part  IV,  Chap.  Ill,  Macmillan  1917. 

6S 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS   AND  THE  IDLE  69 

fluctuations  of  employment.  He  often  works  at  from  two  to 
a  dozen  different  jobs  in  the  course  of  a  year,  with  loss  of  time 
while  shifting  from  job  to  job,  and  loses  one  or  more  days  while 
working  on  some  of  the  jobs. 

Unemployment  occurs  when  a  man  is  definitely  out  of  a  job ; 
when  his  employment  is  definitely  terminated.  An  unemployed 
man  has  either  been  discharged  by  his  employer,  quit,  or  been 
laid  off  for  a  time.  It  is  correct  to  say  that  unemployment 
obtains  when,  as  in  a  period  of  depression  or  after  a  disastrous 
fire,  a  workman  retains  his  right  and  expectation  to  work  for 
a  particular  employer  but  is  "laid  off"  for  a  prolonged  period. 
A  worker  is  unemployed  when  he  is  definitely  "out  of  a  job" 
for  the  time  being. 

Underemployment  may  be  the  result  of  frequent  unemploy- 
ment or  of  irregular  employment,  or  may  occur  without  the 
presence  of  either.  It  is  a  question  of  earnings.  Underemploy- 
ment occurs  when  the  employee  cannot  get  in  enough  days  or 
hours  of  work  to  earn  an  adequate  livelihood.  Probably  half 
or  more  of  our  wage  earners  suffer  more  or  less  from  under- 
employment. In  any  individual  case  the  underemployment 
may  be  due  to  inability  to  get  work,  to  unsteady  work,  to  re- 
duced hours,  or  to  personal  irregularity.  A  workman  is  under- 
employed when  he  is  unable  to  earn  a  decent  living  at  his  occu- 
pation because  he  does  not  work  full  time.  When  the  cause  of 
insufficient  income  is  low  wages  rather  than  irregular  employ- 
ment, the  problem,  of  course,  belongs  to  the  wage  question 
rather  than  employment.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  cause  of  a 
family's  poverty  is  frequently  the  combination  of  a  low  wage 
and  irregular  employment.^     It  is  precisely  those  who  work 

^  A  number  of  studies  of  workingmen's  family  incomes  in  this  country  during  the 
ten  years  preceding  the  war  reveal  that  a  surprising  proportion  of  American  workers' 
families  make  ends  meet  only  because  two  or  more  persons  contribute  to  the  family 
budget.  A  large  percentage  of  American  "heads  of  families"  are  unable  to  maintain 
their  families  in  a  satisfactory  standard  of  life  by  their  own  efforts,  and  cither  the 
mother  or  the  children  have  to  "help  out."  There  can  be  little  objection  to  the  wife 
working  when  it  does  not  impair  her  health  or  the  performance  of  her  duties  as  wife 
or  mother,  especially  if  it  enables  the  family  to  save  and  advance  themselves.  But 
in  a  large  percentage  of  cases  the  wife  and  children  work  to  their  own  or  the  family's 
detriment.    The  same  condition  is  even  more  prevalent  in  England  and  Europe. 


70  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

most  unsteadily  who  earn  the  least  when  they  do  work.  They 
work  more  unsteadily  than  other  men  because  they  are  less 
efficient,  and  they  earn  a  lower  rate  of  wages  for  the  same  reason. 
The  number  of  such  persons  seeking  work  seems  always  to  be 
larger  than  the  demand  for  their  services,  and  they  are  there- 
fore almost  continuously  in  excessive  competition  with  others 
of  their  own  type  for  such  jobs  as  are  available.  This  puts 
them  in  a  position  of  peculiar  disadvantage  in  bargaining  with 
employers  and  compels  them  to  accept  such  rates  as  the  employer 
offers.  Their  underemployment  is  therefore  cumulative  in  its 
effects,  compelling  the  acceptance  of  low  rates  of  pay  as  well 
as  an  inadequate  amount  of  work.  The  part-time  work  which 
many  skilled  and  competent  employees  have  to  accept  during 
dull  seasons  and  dull  years  affects  the  welfare  of  distinctly 
higher  types  of  labor  than  the  habitually  underemployed 
common  laborers  to  whom  we  have  just  referred. 

The  Causes  oj  Idleness 

Our  previous  chapter  demonstrated  that  involuntary  idle- 
ness of  large  numbers  of  workers  is  typical  of  our  industrial 
life.  If  any  further  demonstration  was  required  to  prove  that 
it  is  not  true  that  any  one  who  desires  work  in  this  country  can 
obtain  it,  and  that  most  of  those  who  are  idle,  although  able 
to  work,  are  idle  by  necessity,  one  would  only  have  to  stop  and 
reflect  that  laziness  is  a  constant  rather  than  a  variable  in 
human  nature,  while  idleness  is  a  variable  rather  than  a  con- 
stant in  himian  experience.  If  unsteady  employment  were 
principally  due  to  the  laziness,  incompetence,  and  irregularity 
of  workmen,  the  amount  of  unemployment  would  be  approxi- 
mately the  same  one  year  with  another.     Not  many  more 

Both  inadequate  wage  rates  and  insufficient  employment  enter  into  the  causes  of  the 
condition.  For  the  benefit  of  the  interested  reader  we  here  cite  a  few  specific  studies 
of  this  matter:  "The  Standard  of  Living  in  New  York  City,"  Robert  Coit  Chapin, 
IV,  pp.  S4-6o;  "The  Standard  of  Living,"  F.  H.  Streightoff,  Chap.  Ill;  "Wage 
Earners'  Budgets,"  Louis  B.  More,  pp.  27,  84;  "Poverty  and  Social  Progress," 
Maurice  Parmalee,  Chap.  VII.  Twelfth  Biennial  Report,  Minnesota  Bureau  of 
Labor,  1909-10,  p.  560. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS   AND  THE   IDLE  71 

persons  are  sick,  disabled,  delinquent,  and  lazy  in  winter  than 
in  summer;  and  certainly  no  more  in  1904,  1908,  191 2,  and 
1914  than  in  intervening  years.  And  yet,  as  we  pointed  out 
in  the  previous  chapter,  the  curve  of  employment  shows  that 
year  after  year  there  are  more  men  idle  in  January  than  in 
March ;  more  idle  in  July  than  in  September ;  fewer  idle  in 
October  than  in  any  other  month ;  and  millions  more  unem- 
ployed some  years  than  others.  Certainly  incapacity,  laziness, 
and  shiftlessness  do  not  vary  to  the  extent  thus  indicated. 

But  the  fluctuation  of  industry's  deniand  for  labor  is  not 
the  only  cause  of  non-employment,  and  does  not  explain  all 
the  phenomena  connected  with  irregular  work,  and  it  is  not 
necessary  to  examine  a  group  of  causes  that  are  at  most  but 
indirectly  related  to  the  fluctuation  in  the  amount  of  work 
available. 

2.   Maladjustment  of  Supply  and  Demand 

It  often  happens  that  an  employer  is  seeking  a  certain  kind 
of  worker  when  there  are  men  of  that  very  kind  out  of  employ- 
ment in  that  very  locality  but  neither  the  employer  nor  the 
worker  knows  about  the  other's  need,  and  the  two  do  not  come 
together.  They  are  ships  that  pass  in  the  night.  A  lack  of 
agencies  for  quickly  and  accurately  bringing  together  unfilled 
labor  demands  and  idle  workers  able  to  fill  them  causes  hundreds 
of  thousands  of  workmen  to  lose  time  each  year  who  would 
be  profitably  employed  if  they  only  knew  the  names  and  loca- 
tions of  specific  employers  who  needed  their  services.^ 

3.   Effect  of  Inefficiency  on  Demand  for  Labor 

Inefl&ciency  of  workers  probably  decreases  the  total  volume 
of  employment  open  to  wage  earners.  There  is  no  way  to 
determine  quantitatively  the  extent  to  which  inefficiency  causes 
idleness. ,  But  any  one  familiar  with  industry  and  labor  can 
hardly  fail  to  notice  the  large  proportion  of  workers  who  fall 
short  of  the  productivity  that  should  have  been  possible  for 

iCf.  Chapters  VI,  VII,  VIII,  and  IX. 


72  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

them.^  Employers,  workmen,  social  workers,  and  economists 
can  agree  on  this  one  point  at  least.  They  may  get  into  an 
argument  when  an  attempt  is  made  to  locate  the  causes  for  the 
inefficiency,  but  the  fact  that  large  numbers  of  workmen  are 
not  so  productive  as  they  might  have  been  is  admitted  by  all. 

•Inefficiency  affects  employment  in  two  ways.  It  determines 
which  individual  workmen  will  be  let  out  first,  and  it  increases 
the  total  amount  of  unemployment..  In  other  words  it  affects 
both  the  incidence  of  unemployment  and  the  total  number  of 
workers  unemployed.  *  We  are  interested  at  this  point  only  in 
its  effect  upon  the  volume  of  idleness.  Its  determination  of 
the  incidence  of  unemployment  is  discussed  later  in  the  chapter. 

Employers  produce  goods  in  order  to  earn  profits.  If  their 
cost  of  production  equals  or  exceeds  the  selling  price,  they  have  no 
object  in  producing.  In  years  or  seasons  when  business  is  not 
prospering  and  prices  are  falling  closer  and  closer  to  the  neces- 
sary cost  of  production  the  employer  begins  to  retrench.  At 
such  times,  employers  who  can  produce  at  the  lowest  cost  per  unit 
of  product  can  continue  their  normal  production  after  those 
whose  cost  of  production  is  higher  have  to  decrease  their  output 
or  close  down. 

Efficient  labor,  i.e.  labor  whose  output  is  large  in  proportion 
to  its  cost,  enables  an  employer  to  continue  production  even 
in  an  unfavorable  market.  Inefficient  labor  costs  so  much 
that  the  employer  must  decrease  his  output  sooner.  His  high 
labor  cost  causes  his  cost  of  production  quickly  to  exceed  the 
falling  price.  This  is  the  way  that  inefficiency  increases  unem- 
ployment. It  forces  employers  either  to  cut  wages  in  a  falling 
price  market  or  to  stop  producing.   ^ 

An  interesting  illustration  recently  came  under  the  author's 
observation  in  a  large  steel  plant.  The  labor  cost  per  ton  of 
product  in  this  plant  had  risen  above  the  labor  costs  of  certain 
competitors.    The  firm  was  unable  to  get  new  orders.     The 

'Cf.  Beveridge,  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  Chaps.  VI  and  VII; 
Chapman  and  Hallsworth,  "  Unemployment  in  Lancashire,"  Chap.  V ;  Third  Report 
New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment,  igii,  especially 
in  testimony. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  73 

relative  ineflSciency  of  their  labor  was  forcing  them  out  of  the 
market.  When  the  workers  discovered  that  the  firm  was  short 
on  orders  they  decreased  their  output  still  more  in  order  to 
"make  the  job  last"  as  long  as  possible.  The  firm  decided 
that  the  only  solution  for  the  problem  was  to  put  the  whole 
situation  up  to  the  men.  They  called  them  in  and  told  them 
that  orders  were  so  low  that  decreased  employment  had  become 
inevitable ;  showed  them  their  books  and  proved  that  labor 
ineflaciency  was  the  cause  of  their  inability  to  get  orders,  and 
pointed  out  that  the  only  thing  which  would  prevent  a  complete 
shutdown  was  an  increase  in  output  per  man.  The  men  would 
have  to  work  harder  and  faster  and  to  accept  a  temporary  wage 
reduction  that  would  enable  their  concern  to  underbid  competi- 
tors. When  the  men  saw  the  situation  they  agreed  to  the  firm's 
proposal.  The  problem  they  had  to  face  was  clearly  to  accept 
unemployment  as  a  penalty  for  their  low  productivity  or  in- 
crease their  output,  cut  their  employer's  labor  cost,  and  recover 
their  employment.  They  made  the  temporary  sacrifice,  enabled 
their  employer  to  compete  successfully,  and  reestablished  them- 
selves in  steady,  remunerative  work. 

The  eflfect  of  inefficiency  upon  the  regularity  of  employment 
is  not  always  as  apparent  as  it  was  in  this  case,  but  there  can 
be  no  question  that  one  means  of  steadying  employment  is  to 
improve  the  efficiency  of  labor  so  that  the  employer  can  pro- 
duce even  when  prices  are  low.  This  is  notably  true  in  those 
industries  (now  to  become  more  numerous  in  America)  which 
sell  their  products  in  foreign  countries.  It  is  likewise  true 
in  those  industries  which  sell  over  wide  areas,  many  of  whose 
competitors  have  peculiar  advantages  of  location.  The  labor 
item  is  a  large  element  in  the  cost  of  production  of  many  indus- 
tries, and  even  small  variations  in  the  product  per  'man  often 
have  marked  effects  on  the  employers'  position  in  competition. 
Irregular  employment  is  one  of  the  most  persistent  causes  of 
inefficiency  among  workers.*  That  very  inefficiency  becomes, 
in  turn,  the  cause  of  further  lack  of  employment.  *• 

There  are  a  number  of  different  types  of  inefficiency  among 
our  workers  which  are  susceptible  of  elimination  or  modifica- 


74  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

tion.  Lack  of  technical  skill,  inability  to  apply  themselves 
steadily,  poor  physique,  a  defective  sense  of  responsibility, 
absence  of  a  sense  of  loyalty  to  the  concern  for  whom  they  are 
working,  lack  of  ideals  of  workmanship,  and  lack  of  interest  in 
the  work  stand  out  among  the  causes  of  inefficiency.  Each 
and  all  of  them  are  largely  susceptible  of  control. 
*  The  lack  of  technical  skill  among  American-born  workmen 
has  been  due  to  five  characteristics  of  our  economic  and  edu- 
cational system :  we  have  no  general  systems  of  apprentice- 
ship training ;  we  have  no  general  system  of  industrial  educa- 
tion; our  subdivision  and  specialization  of  tasks  makes  it 
impossible  for  workers  to  learn  a  trade  in  the  shop ;  the  rapid 
turnover  of  labor  in  our  industries  prevents  more  than  half  of 
our  workmen  from  remaining  long  enough  in  one  establishment 
to  become  skilled  workmen  ;  and  we  have  depended  upon  immi- 
gration for  a  large  part  of  our  skilled  labor.  * 

It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  at  length  on  the  fact  that  Ameri- 
can industry  has  had  neither  an  apprenticeship  system  nor  an 
adequate  substitute  for  one.  That  fact  is  well  known,  and  both 
our  industries  and  our  educators  are  now  trying  to  fill  the  gap. 
Indeed,  the  changes  in  industry  which  have  been  splitting  up 
trades  into  specialized  tasks  have  rendered  the  old-fashioned 
apprenticeship  obsolete  for  the  mass  of  the  wage  earners.  One 
of  the  essential  difficulties  in  our  industries  is  that  the  employers 
now  teach  a  worker  a  specific  task  and  lay  him  off  when  they 
no  longer  need  him  for  that  task.  He  has  not  that  general 
capacity  which  enables  him  to  be  fitted  into  other  work,  and  can- 
not be  expected  to  have  it.  He,  and  often  his  employer,  has 
come  to  look  upon  that  task  as  his  occupation,  and  when  he  is 
laid  off  he  begins  to  seek  work  in  some  other  establishment  at 
that  task.  •  Frequently  he  wastes  weeks  in  a  fruitless  search 
for  a  certain  job  which  he  considers  his  occupation,  but  which 
is  in  reality  but  one  detail  in  a  complex  production  process. 
This  worker,  a  victim  of  American-  subdivision  of  tasks,  is  often 
worse  off  than  if  he  knew  nothing  but  crude  manual  labor. 
The  type  of  skill  he  has  is  so  specialized  that  it  is  hard  to  market, 
and  yet  it  represents  to  him  his  highest  attainment  in  work- 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS   AND  THE   IDLE  75 

manship  and  earning  capacity,  and  he  does  not  want  to  step 
down  to  a  lower  grade  of  occupation.^ »  To  the  business  or  pro- 
fessional man  there  may  not  appear  to  be  any  difference  in 
industrial  grade  between  a  stamping  press  operator  or  a  crater 
in  the  shipping  room,  and  a  pick-and-shoyel  laborer  or  a  team- 
ster's helper,  but  to  the  worker  there  is  so  much  difference  that 
he  will  tramp  the  streets  looking  for  the  work  he  "follows" 
until  actual  hunger  forces  acceptance  of  the  cruder  employment. 
He  no  longer  considers  himself  a  "common  laborer."*  This 
fragmentary  training  of  workers  often  improves  their  economic 
status  if  they  are  able  to  hold  the  job  permanently,  or  work 
in  a  community  where  employers  use  many  men  at  that  kind  of 
work,  but  it  unfits  many  workers  for  other  occupations  with- 
out giving  them  any  steady  employment  at  the  work  they  have 
learned.  A  little  skill,  like  a  little  learning,  is  often  a  dangerous 
thing.  • 

Dr.  Frank  Tucker  described  his  experiences  with  inadequately 
trained  workers  in  his  testimony  before  the  New  York  Com- 
mission on  Unemployment :  - 

"We  have  the  most  serious  problem  in  obtaining  employment  for 
those  who  are  essentially  inefl&cient.  I  mean  by  that  that  they  have 
not  been  taught  an  occupation  which  is  steady  in  its  character.  I  have 
come  in  contact  with  many  men  who  know  only  what  is  called  clerical 
work.  They  have  not  been  trained  as  bookkeepers,  they  have  not 
been  trained  as  accountants,  they  have  not  been  trained  as  cashiers 
or  cashiers'  assistants.  In  other  words,  their  early  training  has  not 
equipped  them  for  existence,  and  for  obtaining  employment  in  a  com- 
munity where  employment  is  highly  specialized. 

"Then  there  is  the  type  of  so-called  handy  man  (casual)  who 
usually  has  no  capacity  whatever.  He  cannot  even  attend  to  the 
furnace  well.  He  does  not  know  how  to  remove  the  ashes  from  the 
kitchen  to  the  sidewalk  without  leaving  a  trail.  He  does  not  know 
how  to  clean  a  window  and  seemingly  has  not  the  capacity  to  learn 
how,  and  at  any  rate  no  one  has  the  time  or  the  inclination  to  teach 
him.    Then  there  is  the  great  group  whose  working  capacity  has  been 

'  This  question  of  industrial  training  is  discussed  constructively  on  pages  135  ff. 

'  Report  of  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment, 

April,  1911,  Appendix  11,  pp.  191-192.     Cf.  also  Beveridge,  op.  cit.,  Chaps.  VI,  VII. 


76  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

destroyed  both  through  lack  of  proper  training  for  a  vocation,  and 
whose  earning  capacity  is  weakened  by  some  weakness  of  character 
that  we  usually  find  to  be  overindulgence  in  stimulants,  which  has  so 
fastened  itself  upon  them  as  really  to  become  a  disease.  That  type 
of  man  is  not  an  uneducated  man.  He  is  not  a  man  who  has  been 
limited  as  to  his  early  opportunities  in  hfe.  He  is  usually  a  man  who 
has  had  opportunities  and  who  has  not  estabUshed  himself,  and  who 
has  reached  an  age  where  he  cannot  unlearn  the  habits  of  the  past, 
and  he  cannot  learn  or  develop  a  new  form  of  earning  capacity  suffi- 
cient to  maintain  himself. 

"These  are  types  of  men  whom  we,  who  have  dealt  with  dependent 
families,  are  constantly  in  contact  with.  And  it  is  from  that  group 
that  the  need  for  the  custodial  institution  which  Doctor  Lewis  spoke 
of  this  morning  has  grown  —  an  institution  where  there  can  be 
control,  so  that  the  desire  for  drink  will  be  controlled,  or  at  least 
minimized,  and  where  some  form  of  earning  capacity  can  be  developed, 
at  any  rate  to  such  an  extent  as  to  enable  the  individual  to  go  back  in 
society  and  establish  for  himself  a  place  where  he  can  maintain  him- 
self independently  without  outside  assistance." 

The  "blind  alley ^^  occupations,  into  which  hosts  of  young 
people  are  drawn  like  flies  into  the  web  of  the  spider,  throw 
thousands  of  unfits  upon  the  labor  market.  Children  enter 
industry  with  but  a  crude  education  and  no  specialized  training 
and  enter  occupations  in  which  they  cannot  hope  to  remain  for 
more  than  a  few  years  and  in  which  they  are  not  being  fitted  for 
any  permanent  career.  Mrs.  Helen  W.  Rodgers,  Director  of 
the  Boston  Placement  Bureau,  testifying  before  the  Industrial 
Relations  Commission,  said : 

"We  get  a  great  many  tragedies  at  i8,  coming  into  the  placement 
bureau,  or  from  the  great  factories  where  those  boys  have  gone  at  14 
at  high  wages,  doing  mechanical  work.  They  have  done  it  for  four 
years.  They  reached  the  limit  of  income  ;  that  is,  they  reached  their 
earning  capacity  there,  and  they  come  out  to  us  at  18,  deadly  tired 
of  it,  and  not  having  any  idea  of  the  next  step.  They  have  been 
doing  treadmill  work.  They  know  nothing  else  but  that  one  machine. 
They  don't  know  what  else  is  going  en  in  industry.  After  four  years 
of  Ufe  in  industry,  they  are  as  bhnd  as  the  boy  of  14  as  to  the  opportu- 
nities there  are  for  them  to  do.     I  should  say  in  our  placement  work 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  77 

those  18-year-old  boys  are  going  out  of  industry,  they  are  great 
tragedies."  ^ 

These  "blind  alley"  occupations  must  be  abandoned  when 
man's  estate  is  reached.  Sometimes  the  boy  or  girl  is  employed 
in  a  factory  upon  some  special  light  work  —  minding  a  simple 
machine,  paper  folding,  packing,  and  the  like.  Thousands  are 
hired  by  mercantile  establishments  for  bundle  wrapping,  selling 
notions,  and  other  more  or  less  unskilled  work  that  is  not  fol- 
lowed as  an  adult  occupation.  The  employer  in  St.  Paul  who 
put  a  sign  in  his  window,  "Wanted,  an  Apprentice  to  Run 
Errands,"  pictured  the  situation.  Often  the  employment  is 
of  a  more  general  character ;  such  as  that  of  the  thousands  of 
newsboys,  messengers,  or  bellboys.  In  each  type,  however, 
the  position  of  the  boys  or  girls  is  the  same.  They  enter,  not 
as  learners,  but  as  wage  earners,  doing  some  work  too  simple  or 
too  light  to  require  the  services  of  grown  people.  When  they 
have  grown  up  and  begin  to  expect  the  wages  of  grown  people 
they  must  go  elsewhere  to  obtain  those  wages.  They  leave  or 
are  dismissed  and  their  places  are  taken  by  a  fresh  generation 
from  the  schools.  Worse  still,  most  of  them  do  not  continue 
in  any  particular  establishment  or  occupation  even  during  their 
pre-adult  years.  Shifting  from  job  to  job  is  characteristic  of 
these  youths.  They  acquire  the  habit  of  working  irregularly 
even  before  they  are  thrown  upon  the  labor  market  as  untrained 
laborers.  Consequently,  they  find  themselves  at  eighteen  or 
twenty  years  of  age  without  any  obvious  career  before  them, 
without  a  trade  in  their  hands,  with  no  resource  save  unskilled 
labor,  and  often  without  a  habit  of  working  steadily.  It  is 
not  strange  that  many  of  them  make  a  failure  of  life.^ 

There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  tendency  of  these  very 
prevalent  forms  of  youthful  employment  to  turn  out  men  who 
take  necessarily  to  unskilled,  often  eventually  to  casual,  labor. 
It  is  well  known  that  a  considerable  fraction  of  those  who  apply 

'  Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations  Commission,  Vol.  II,  p.  1336. 

'  Cf.  also  "One  Thousand  Homeless  Men,"  Solenberger,  Chap.  XIII;  "Unem- 
ployment, A  Social  Problem,"  Rowntree  and  Lasker,  Chaps.  I,  III;  "Child  Prob- 
lems," George  B.  Mangold,  Chap.  V;  Final  Report  Industrial  Relations  Commis- 
sion, Vol.  II,  pp.  1315-23;    1328-37;  1336;    1384-86. 


yS  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

for  charitable  relief  on  account  of  unemployment  are  persons 
whose  early  years  were  spent  in  employments  of  this  character, 
and  prepared  only  for  a  place  in  the  labor  reserve.  As  an  Eng- 
lish writer  has  put  it:  "Large  numbers  of  young  people  drift 
through  ad-de-sac  boy  employments  into  the  overstocked 
ranks  of  the  unskilled,  and  many  of  them  verge  on  inefficiency 
not  by  reason  of  inborn  defects,  but  because  their  early  occu- 
pations, which  called  for  little  application,  and  were  interspersed 
with  periods  of  loafing,  gradually  undermined  their  powers. 
The  need  of  agencies  to  direct  boys  and  girls  to  trades  at  the 
critical  age  is  only  less  pressing  than  the  need  of  better  educa- 
tion and  a  more  extensively  utilized  continuation  system.  .  .  . 
And  as  regards  education,  it  is  urgent  that  the  community 
should  realize  how  fast  the  demand  for  developed  intelligence 
and  alertness  is  growing,  that  it  is  growing  naturally  at  the 
expense  of  mere  physical  power,  and  how  necessary  it  is  that 
provision  should  be  made  for  this  by  our  training  of  the  young."  ^ 
It  is  bad  enough  when  the  "blind  alley"  occupation  leads 
to  casual  labor  and  industrial  ineflSiciency.^  How  much  worse 
when  it  produces  a  warping  of  the  youth's  valuations  that  unfits 
him  for  normal  industrial  life.  When  Mrs.  Florence  Kelley  was 
testifying  before  the  New  York  Commission  on  Unemployment 
she  said : 

"I  know  about  these  young  unemployables,  because  I  have  been, 
watching  them  for  eighteen  years.  What  they  do  now  is  to  send  the 
boys  fourteen  years  of  age  into  the  messenger  service,  and  at  sixteen 
years  old  they  let  them  work  on  the  night  messenger  service,  and  by 
the  time  they  are  sixteen  years  old,  they  learn  nothing  by  which  they 
can  support  themselves ;  they  are  too  old  for  that  service,  and  they 
are  thrown  out  of  it,  and  they  largely  recruit  the  body  of  tramps,  a 
body  of  young  people  who  do  not  keep  any  jobs.  There  are  no  tasks 
that  fall  on  the  settlement  so  discouraging.     We  try  to  get  work  for 

>"  Unemployment  in  Lancashire,"  Chapman  and  Hallsworth,  p.  78.  Interest- 
ing historical  data  on  "  blind  alley  "  employments  in  England  will  be  foimd  in  "  Eng- 
lish Apprenticeship  and  Child  Labour,"  Jocelyn  Dunlop  and  R.  D.  Denman,  es- 
pecially Chaps.  V  and  XVIII. 

'The  question  of  child  training  and  the  mitigation  of  " blind  alley  "  conditions 
is  further  discussed  in  Chap.  V,  pp.  1 1 7  ff . 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  79 

the  multitudes  of  them ;  they  don't  want  to  work ;  they  have  become 
entirely  disillusioned.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  a  great  many  young 
boys  who  have  been  in  employments  like  driving  sewing  machines  in 
tailor  shops  and  doing  physically  exhausting  work,  and  in  the  fac- 
tories ;  they  have  seen  the  working  people,  and  in  their  own  expression, 
'there  is  nothing  in  it,'  and  they  have  to  be  made  over ;  they  have  to 
be  physically  set  up,  habituated  to  an  entirely  different  kind  of  work 
than  anything  they  have  had  before.  .  .  .  There  are  about  six 
thousand  of  them  put  off  every  year,  employed  by  one  single  company 
here  in  this  one  single  city  in  the  State.  The  payroll  of  the  Western 
Union  covers  2000  permanent,  and  in  order  to  keep  2000  on  the 
payroU,  they  hire  6000,  and  of  those  6000  the  great  majority,  accord- 
ing to  the  statement  of  one  of  the  officers  of  the  company  to  me,  do 
not  stay  in  their  employment  more  than  three  months.  It  is  just  a 
floating  experience  they  have. 

"By  Chairman  Wainwright :  Q.  Have  you  any  statistics  of  the  num- 
ber of  prosecutions  and  convictions  of  those  boys  for  petty  offenses? 

"  A.  No,  we  are  getting  that  now.  Personally,  I  know  that  the 
proportion  of  boys  committed  who  have  floated  through  this  service, 
the  proportion  of  floaters  is  very  large  among  the  boys  committed, 
but  we  are  getting  the  actual  figures."  ^ 

The  serious  effect  which  a  frequent  change  of  jobs  has  upon 
the  eflSciency  of  a  workman  was  not  fully  realized  until  skilled 
employment  managers  working  for  progressive  concerns  began 
to  study  out  ways  and  means  of  increasing  the  productive 
power  of  their  labor  forces.  They  discovered  that  the  essential 
obstacle  to  be  overcome  was  that  the  men  they  were  training 
one  day  were  gone  the  next ;  while  the  men  who  stayed  with 
them  were  often  not  interested  in  developing  themselves  because 
they  expected  to  he  discharged  at  no  distant  date.  "What's  the 
use?"  had  acquired  possession  of  many  workmen's  minds. 

There  is  a  sharp  disagreement  between  the  employers  and 
the  men  concerning  the  responsibility  for  this  shifting  and 
turnover  of  labor.     The  employers  say :  "Men  do  not  stay  with 

*  Third  Report,  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemploy- 
ment, igii,  p.  166.  The  state  of  New  York  has  since  passed  legislation  which 
forbids  the  employment  of  young  boys  in  the  night  messenger  service,  but  the 
quotation  is  an  accurate  description  of  conditions  surrounding  thousands  of  boys 
in  various  occupations. 


8o  THE   LABOR   MARKET 

US  long  enough  to  permit  us  to  teach  them  more  than  one  or 
two  things.  They  leave  us  as  soon  as  we  have  taught  them 
enough  so  that  they  are  valuable.  We  lose  what  we  invest  in 
training  them."  The  men  say :  "If  we  stay  with  an  employer, 
he  puts  us  on  one  particular  job  and  keeps  us  there  all  our 
lives.  It  is  more  profitable  for  him  to  keep  a  man  on  something 
he  knows  than  to  teach  him  a  trade.  And  anyway,  they  are 
more  to  blame  for  men  changing  employers  than  the  men  are. 
As  soon  as  the  busy  season  is  over  they  let  most  of  us  go  and  we 
have  to  find  work  elsewhere."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  of  course, 
there  is  fault  on  both  sides.  Employers,  in  working  out  their 
subdivision  and  specialization  of  tasks,  have  very  frequently 
neglected  to  consider  their  men's  interest.  The  easiest  pro- 
cedure is  to  put  a  man  on  a  task  and  keep  him  there ;  to  hire  a 
man  who  knows  a  given  task  rather  than  to  promote  and  train 
a  man  in  the  plant;  to  depend  upon  hiring  skill  rather  than 
producing  it.  Workmen,  on  the  other  hand,  have  a  tendency, 
when  they  have  half  or  two  thirds  learned  a  trade  or  skilled 
occupation,  to  quit  the  employer  who  has  taught  them,  represent 
themselves  to  another  employer  as  competent  workmen,  and 
try  to  get  higher  wages  by  changing  establishments.  The  men 
maintain  that  they  do  not  stay  because  their  employers  do  not 
give  them  a  chance  for  advancement;  the  employers  contend 
that  they  cannot  give  the  chance  for  advancement  because  the 
men  quit  after  the  employers  have  invested  in  their  training  and 
before  the  training  is  completed. 

The  monotony  and  lack  of  interest  of  many  occupations  is 
another  influence  which  prevents  workmen  from  remaining 
long  enough  to  become  skilled.^  It  is  interesting  to  make 
something,  but  it  is  not  interesting  to  make,  hour  after  hour, 
day  after  day,  month  after  month,  a  hundredth  part  of  some- 
thing, and  often  not  even  know  what  the  finished  product 
looks  like.  The  worker  who  finds  little  to  interest  him  in  his 
work  is  apt  to  satisfy  his  craving  for  interest  by  changing 
employers,    changing    industries    or    changing    localities.     He 

'  The  most  thorough  discussion  of  this  topic  is  "The  Instinct  of  Workmanship," 
Thorstein  Veblen. 


OCCUPATIONAL   IDLENESS   AND  THE   IDLE  8 1 

knows  that  if  he  does  not  like  his  new  job,  he  can  change  again ; 
and  he  does.  The  employer  who  splits  up  an  occupation  into 
a  hundred  monotonous,  repetitive  tasks  must  seek  to  replace 
the  interest  which  has  evaporated  from  the  work  with  a  shop 
environment  which  appeals  to  the  workman's  personality. 
Otherwise  he  can  hardly  expect  his  workers  to  stay  with  him. 
This  is  one  of  the  main  functions  to  be  performed  by  industrial 
welfare  activities,  and  there  is  no  excuse  for  a  spirit  of  charity 
creeping  into  them,  since  they  but  replace  in  the  life  of  the 
employee  an  interest  of  which  modern  industry  has  more  or  less 
thoughtlessly  deprived  him.  The  employer  owes  it  to  his 
workman  and  to  himself  to  make  the  workplace  livable. 

A  considerable  number  of  progressive  firms,  even  in  lines 
where  work  is  highly  subdivided  and  speciaUzed,  have  found 
that  a  policy  of  training  labor  can  be  successfully  and  profitably 
installed.  The  first  essential  is  to  convince  every  workman  or 
woman  who  enters  the  establishment  that  steady  work  and 
promotion  are  possible  to  them  if  they  avail  themselves  of  the 
opportunities  which  will  be  open.  The  second  is  the  promotion 
of  persons  within  the  establishment  to  better  positions  when- 
ever there  are  openings  for  which  persons  in  the  plant  are  quali- 
fied or  can  be  qualified  by  training.  Workmen  must  see  pro- 
motion in  progress  to  be  convinced  of  its  possibility  for  them. 
The  third  is  a  careful  training  and  instruction  of  each  employee 
in  each  task  he  performs.  There  is  a  right  way  to  do  even  the 
simplest  work,  and  the  workman  must  respect  his  work  if  he 
is  to  remain  at  it.  The  fourth  is  advancement  of  wages  with 
advancement  in  skill.  These  are  but  simple,  fundamental 
principles  which  must  underlie  a  training  pohcy.  They  con- 
vince the  workmen  of  the  firm's  sincerity  and  that  real  oppor- 
tunities are  open  to  them. 

*  Employers  in  the  United  States  have  been  encouraged  to 
neglect  the  training  of  workmen  by  the  influx  of  European 
mechanics.  Throughout  our  history  we  have  drawn  thousands 
of  skilled  workmen  from  Europe  each  year.  But  in  recent 
years  the  percentage  of  skilled  workmen  among  our  immigrants 
has  been  very  small.     Our  rapidly  expanding  industries  call 


82  THE   LABOR   MARKET 

for  larger  and  larger  numbers  of  trained  workmen ;  immigra- 
tion has  been  giving  us  fewer  and  fewer.  The  reduction  of 
immigration  during  the  war  directed  employers'  attention  to 
the  necessity  of  emphasizing  industrial  training  rather  than 
dependence  upon  immigration  as  nothing  had  done  before. 
The  marvelous  results  attained  in  the  swift,  intensive  training 
of  war  workers  demonstrated  something  of  what  can  be  accom- 
plished. If  immigration  continues  to  remain  considerably 
below  the  pre-war  figures  for  ten  years  more,  as  it  probably  will, 
it  will  no  doubt  cause  our  employers  to  give  unprecedented 
attention  to  the  development  of  a  higher  average  of  technical 
skill  among  American  workmen.^  • 

At  the  same  time,  experience  has  amply  demonstrated  that 
only  a  relatively  small  percentage  of  people  (wage  earners  or 
others)  will  attend  night  school.  It  requires  unusual  ambition, 
determination,  and  persistence  to  go  to  school  after  doing  a 
day's  work.  A  city  night  school  superintendent  of  long  experi- 
ence recently  stated  to  me  that  in  his  judgment  not  more  than 
two  per  cent  of  the  adults  of  any  city  can  be  attracted  to  night 
school.  The  training  given,  to  be  effective,  must  therefore  be 
connected  with  the  day's  work  or  given  during  periods  of  idle- 
ness.2 

The  training  of  adults  at  their  workplace  can  be  carried  on 
in  a  number  of  different  ways.  Of  late,  considerable  discussion 
has  centered  about  the  "vestibule  school"  as  a  solution  of  the 
industrial  training  problem.  The  vestibule  school  is  a  course 
of  training  which  new  employees,  or  employees  transferred  to 
new  work,  are  given  before  they  start  work.  It  does  not  provide 
a  general  training  for  a  trade  or  occupation  but  it  affords  a 
short,  intensive  training  for  a  single  operation.  It  is  a  job 
preparation,  not  an  occupation  preparation,  and  it  is  a  natural 
development  from  the  subdivision  of  work  in  modern  industry. 
It  was  widely  used  during  the  war  for  the  so-called  "dilution 
of  labor,"  to  teach  women  and  "green  hands"  how  to  perform 

*  Cf.  "Immigration  and  the  Supply  of  Labor  after  the  War,"  D.  D.  Lescohier, 
Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1919. 

*  Cf.  Discussion  of  Training  During  Idleness  in  Chapter  V. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  83 

some  single  operation  ordinarily  performed  by  skilled  me- 
chanics as  a  regular  part  of  their  trade.  It  is  a  device  to  assist 
employers  to  develop  in  employees  a  particular  specialized  skill. 

The  vestibule  school  is,  of  course,  but  a  particular  method 
of  making  sure  that  every  person  who  is  taken  into  an  industry 
shall  receive  some  kind  of  definite  training  for  the  work  under- 
taken. Such  training  is  only  common  sense.  If  the  minute 
subdivision  of  labor  which  now  obtains  in  so  many  of  our  indus- 
tries is  to  continue,  and  persons  must  be  employed  to  work  at 
the  highly  specialized  jobs  which  require  labor  in  those  establish- 
ments, some  kind  of  training  of  each  person  for  each  job  is 
essential.  The  only  alternative  is  a  low  quality  of  labor  effi- 
ciency. Many  thoughtful  people,  both  within  and  without 
industries  characterized  by  such  specialization  of  employment, 
doubt  the  possibility  of  building  a  democratic  civilization  around 
industries  whose  processes  are  so  deadening  to  mind  and  soul, 
and  believe  that  the  minute  subdivision  of  labor  which  has 
developed  in  the  last  forty  years  will  pass,  and  be  followed  by  a 
broadening  of  occupations  and  occupational  training.  But  it 
is  impossible  at  this  time  to  forecast  the  future  course  of  our 
industrial  development  in  this  matter  of  labor  specialization, 
and  the  vestibule  school,  with  its  fitting  of  the  new  worker  to 
his  work,  is  far  better  than  the  slipshod  methods  which  have 
heretofore  obtained  in  the  induction  of  untrained  employees 
into  new  jobs. 

Nevertheless,  the  warning  of  Mr.  Stewart  Scrimshaw,  Super- 
visor of  Apprenticeship  of  the  Wisconsin  Industrial  Commis- 
sion, with  respect  to  the  vestibule  school,  is  one  that  should  not 
be  overlooked : 

"Vestibule  schools  with  their  corollary  —  dilution  of  labor  — 
have  been  advocated  for  war  emergency,  and  naturally  during  the 
war  no  adverse  comment  was  made  upon  them.  But  in  times  of 
peace  and  normal  industrial  development,  the  vestibule  school  is  an 
institution  which  cannot  be  looked  upon  except  with  suspicion  by  all 
lovers  of  democratic  education  and  opportunity  for  the  young.  A 
vestibule  school  is  not  a  school  at  all.  It  is  a  department  for  beginners 
established  in  special  rooms  or  space  through  which  workers  pass, 


84  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

with  the  idea  of  making  these  individuals  efficient  producers  through 
a  particular  operation  in  a  minimum  of  time.  //  a  vestibule  school  is 
maintained  for  adults,  people  over  twenty-one,  who  wish  at  the  com- 
pany's expense  to  become  competent  on  some  machine,  no  one  has  a 
word  to  say;  but  if  the  youth  of  our  land  are  put  through  these  schools 
and  made  intensive  operators,  especially  with  public  assistance,  we 
should  have  a  great  deal  to  say.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  vestibule  school 
can  be  a  prosperous  institution  only  when  there  is  a  colossal  labor 
turnover,  or  a  great  influx  of  new  workers  such  as  occurred  during  the 
war ;  we  all  know  that  there  is  a  wise  tendency  in  modern  industry 
to  eliminate  this  excessive  labor  turnover.  If  this  movement  is 
sincere,  as  we  know  it  is,  it  must  automatically  leave  the  vestibule  school, 
as  an  educational  plan  for  minors,  entirely  out  of  the  question.  (Italics 
ours.)^ 

There  is  room  in  industry  for  another  kind  of  training  school. 
Some  of  our  larger  companies  have  arranged,  either  privately 
or  in  cooperation  with  educational  institutions,  for  courses 
given  in  the  establishment  or  at  school,  for  the  further  training 
of  their  employees  in  their  vocations.  But  most  of  this  sort  of 
training  accrues  to  persons  who  already  have  definite  trades 
or  occupations  and  simply  aims  to  raise  them  to  a  higher  level 
of  efficiency.  It  does  not  benefit  those  who  lack  training  to 
such  an  extent  that  the  regularity  of  their  employment  is 
affected. 

Such  persons,  if  adults,  have  not  enough  preliminary  edu- 
cation and  industrial  knowledge  to  fit  them  to  enter  and  benefit 
by  such  classes.  Their  principal  hope  for  training  must  consist 
in  a  systematic  policy  on  the  part  of  their  employers  of : 
(i)  giving  them  careful  instruction  {on  the  job)  in  each  task  they 
perform;  (2)  transferring  them  as  frequently  as  possible  to 
other  jobs,  and  training  them  carefully  for  each ;  and  (3)  pro- 
moting them  to  higher  grade  work  whenever  possible. 

But  we  cannot  depend  entirely  upon  the  employers  to  pro- 
vide our  entire  system  of  industrial  training.  The  task  of  train- 
ing workers  is  predominantly  a  public  educational  problem. 

*  The  Wisconsin  Apprentice,  Vol.  II,  No.  2,  p.  2,  March,  1919.  Published  by 
Wisconsin  Industrial  Commission,  Madison.  Wis. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE   IDLE  85 

Apprenticeship  and  industrial  training  involve  a  threefold 
development  of  the  individual  in  doing,  seeing,  and  thinking. 
The  boy  must  learn  to  do  in  the  shop ;  he  must  learn  to  see, 
to  think,  and  to  visualize  in  a  systematic  training  process  in  the 
school.  This  is  not  the  place  to  attempt  to  suggest  the  details 
of  an  industrial  educational  system  for  the  United  States. 
That  is  a  question  to  be  worked  out  in  part  by  those  who  direct 
the  operations  of  industry,  and  in  part  by  those  who  specialize 
in  industrial  training.  But  the  writer  offers  as  a  fundamental 
principle  the  statement  that : 

No  program  of  industrial  education  is  adequate,  which  simply 
aims  to  turn  out  skilled  mechanics.  America  needs  efficient 
machine  operators,  laborers,  salesgirls,  and,  in  general,  semi- 
skilled and  unskilled  workers,  just  as  badly  as  skilled  mechanics. 
Our  problem  is  to  increase  and  to  conserve  the  efficiency  of  the 
entire  labor  force;  not  simply  of  a  fraction  of  it.  It  is  very  im- 
portant that  we  realize  now,  at  the  beginning  of  our  construc- 
tive development  of  industrial  training,  that  the  skill  of  mechan- 
ics will  fail  to  produce  its  maximum  results  unless  it  is  used  in 
combination  with  the  labor  of  unskilled  and  semi-skilled  work- 
men who  are  physically  fit,  intelligent,  and  have  the  right  atti- 
tude toward  their  work.  Our  policies  must  cover  our  whole 
labor  force,  not  a  part  of  it. 

The  advocates  of  industrial  education  in  the  United  States 
have  given  undue  prominence  to  training  workmen  for  a  few 
trades,  particularly  the  machinist  and  the  building  trades. 
They  have  even  put  considerable  effort  into  teaching  boys 
certain  trades  which  are  being  steadily  split  into  fragments  by 
the  modern  subdivision  and  specialization  of  employments, 
and  in  which  the  boys  could  find  little  opportunity  to  use  their 
training  to  advantage  unless  they  were  fortunate  enough  to 
become  foremen.  This  shortsightedness  has  been  due  to  a 
failure  to  adequately  understand  their  problem.  Apprentice- 
ship of  the  eighteenth  century  type  is  dead.  It  survives  in 
a  modified  form  in  a  small  number  of  crafts  and  industries. 
But  it  is  as  little  adapted  to  the  twentieth  century  as  eighteenth 
century  ships. 


86  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Apprenticeship,  however,  is  not  dead.  It  is  simply  under- 
going an  adaptation  to  the  new  industrial  life  of  a  new  world 
era. 

"Apprenticeship  is  not  dead,  and  never  was  dead,  and  never  can 
be  dead.  We  are  all  apprentices.  We  have  apprenticeship  all  around 
us.  It  is  only  a  question  whether  it  is  to  be  organized,  or  unorganized. 
The  only  thing  that  can  die  in  apprenticeship  is  perhaps  a  particiilar 
method  or  kind  of  apprenticeship,  but  the  principles,  the  function, 
and  facts  of  apprenticeship  can  never  die.  In  other  words,  there  must 
inevitably  be  a  learning  period  in  actual  experience.  The  essential 
idea  of  apprenticeship  is  to  learn  by  doing,  and  in  doing.  People  may 
contend  for  a  longer  apprenticeship,  or  some  modification  of  appren- 
ticeship, but  fundamentally  the  same  principle  is  always  present  — 
to  learn  by  doing."  ^ 

The  apprenticeship  problem  of  the  present  is  to  develop 
conditions  in  industry,  and  relations  between  industry  and 
our  school  system,  such  as  will  enable  every  child  who  enters 
a  wage  earning  vocation  of  whatever  grade  to  develop  his  powers 
of  hand  and  eye  and  mind  so  that  he  can  do  his  best  for  him- 
self, his  employer,  and  society. 

Apprenticeship,  then,  in  the  modem  conception,  cannot 
be  merely  a  process  of  training  for  certain  trades ;  but  instead, 
a  developed,  organized  plan  whereby  every  child  who  enters 
employment  shall  learn,  consistently,  and  constructively,  how 
to  use  his  powers  of  body  and  mind  effectively  in  work. 

This  conception  requires  that  apprenticeship,  instead  of 
being  the  sole  method  of  acquiring  industrial  knowledge,  shall 
be  but  a  part  of  the  method  by  which  our  youth  acquire  such 
knowledge;  and  instead  of  being  restricted  to  the  few  who 
enter  trades  shall  be  available  to  all  wage  earning  youths. 
Apprenticeship  thus  becomes  a  part  of  the  system  of  industrial 
training,  and  must  necessarily  be  slipplemented  by  school 
training.  In  the  shop,  the  apprentice  learns  to  do;  in  the 
school,  he  learns  to  see  and  understand. 

1  Stewart  Scrimshaw,  Supervisor  of  Apprenticeship,  Industrial  Commission 
of  Wisconsin,  The  Wisconsin  Apprentice,  Vol.  II,  No.  2,  March  15,  1919,  p.  i. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS   AND  THE   IDLE  87 

The  recently  established  system  of  vocational  education,^ 
as  worked  out  in  Wisconsin,  is  gradually  establishing  in  the 
state  the  type  of  apprenticeship  sugg,ested.^  In  Wisconsin, 
under  a  law  passed  in  1915,  all  minors  learning  any  trade,  craft, 
or  business  under  contract,  express  or  implied,  who  receive 
instruction  as  part  of  their  wages,  must  be  under  written  con- 
tract and  the  contracts  approved  by  the  state.  This  is  to  pre- 
vent employers  from  claiming  apprenticeship  for  boys  who  really 
do  nothing  but  common  labor.  These  apprentices  are  required 
to  obtain  four  hours'  instruction  in  a  school  each  week,  on  the 
theory  of  trade.  "Apprenticeship,  which  is  confined  to  practi- 
cal operations  in  the  shop,  is  not  apprenticeship  at  all;  only 
when  theory  is  combined  with  practice  can  a  boy  get  a  true 
apprenticeship."^  "Our  apprentices,  however,  are  paid  by 
the  employers  while  attending  the  school  and  are  penalized 
for  non-attendance  by  a  penalty  of  loss  of  wages  of  three  hours 
for  each  hour  they  are  absent  from  school  without  cause."  ^ 

Side  by  side  with  this  apprenticeship  is  the  requirement, 
for  non-indentured  minors  under  seventeen  years  of  age,  of 
attendance  at  the  vocational  school  eight  hours  per  week,  which 
aims  to  give  them  at  least  some  definite  preparation  for  success- 
ful wage  earning. 

These  first  steps  do  not  carry  industrial  training  very  far 
in  the  direction  of  a  system  of  combined  school  and  shop  train- 
ing that  will  enable  every  youth  to  enter  industry  with  a  prepa- 
ration and  guidance  that  will  bridge  the  gap  between  the  ele- 
mentary school  and  the  opportunities  of  industry.  But  they 
are  definite  steps  in  that  direction  and  they  are  being  guided 
by  men  who  recognize  the  needs  of  the  situation. 

There  is  another  important  consideration  which  should 
cause  the  United  States  to  give  immediate  and  thorough  atten- 
tion to  the  development  of  a  system  of  industrial  training  that 
will  meet  the  needs  of  every  wage  earner.     Labor  legislation 

'  Cf.  further  discussion  on  page  132  ff. 

'  Two  very  good  descriptions  of  the  theory  and  practice  of  the  Wisconsin  system 
are  found  in  "Development  of  Apprenticeship,"  Stewart  Scrimshaw,  o/».  cj<.,  and 
"Labor  and  Administration,"  John  R.  Commons,  Chap.  XX. 

'  Scrimshaw,  op.  cit. 


88  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

has,  in  recent  years,  been  imposing  responsibilities  upon  em- 
ployers for  the  benefit  of  the  wage  earners  which  make  it 
impossible  for  employers  to  provide  employment  for  the  less 
efficient  workers.  Workmen's  compensation  laws,  health  insur- 
ance, minimum  wage  laws,  hours  of  labor  legislation,  and  safety 
and  health  legislation  are  forward  steps  of  society  that  are  of 
the  greatest  value  to  those  who  work  in  our  industries.  The 
welfare  work  which  employers  have  been  stimulated  by  public 
opinion  to  develop  has  often  materially  improved  the  employ- 
ment conditions  of  those  employees  affected.  But  the  work- 
man's compensation  law  has  often  compelled  the  employer 
to  refuse  work  to  the  old,  the  epileptic,  the  near-sighted,  and 
the  feeble-minded ;  to  those  who  have  a  hernia,  a  defect  of  the 
heart  or  lung;  to  those  whose  hearing  is  not  good,  or  whose 
activity  is  impaired  by  rheumatism.  The  minimum  wage  law 
can  compel  the  employer  to  pay  the  woman  worker  twelve 
dollars  a  week,  but  he  is  certain  to  refuse  employment  to  those 
whom  he  does  not  believe  are  worth  it.  Compulsory  health 
insurance,  supported  in  whole  or  part  by  employers,  will  add 
another  group  barred  from  employment  by  rising  standards 
of  labor  protection.  Short  hours  of  labor  are  practical  only 
when  employees  have  physical  and  nervous  vigor  so  that  they 
can  work  hard  and  fast.  They  inevitably  make  unemployable 
the  slow  and  weak. 

Our  commonwealths  are  wise  in  insisting  on  these  mini- 
mums  of  employment  conditions.  But  we  must  not  forget 
that  each  forward  step  throws  another  group  of  workers  into 
the  class  of  undesirable  employees,  and  that  society  itself  is  here 
causing,  by  its  very  progress,  no  inconsiderable  amount  of 
unemployment,  for  which  society  must  hold  itself  responsible. 
'  Two  courses  of  action  lie  before  our  people  with  respect 
to  this  unemployment.  They  are  not  alternative  courses. 
They  are  supplementary.  Both  must  be  adopted.  The  first 
is  to  provide  such  industrial  training  as  will  reduce  the  number 
of  unfits  to  a  minimum.  The  second  is  the  pro\asion  of  some 
means  other  than  the  poorhouse  or  charity  for  taking  care  of 
those  who  cannot  be  made  competent  to  maintain  themselves 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  89 

in  employment  in  competition  with  other  workers.  We  must 
train  our  whole  wage  earning  population,  so  that  the  number 
of  unemployables  will  be  reduced  to  a  minimum.  Then  we 
must  provide  some  method  of  caring  for  that  "  irreducible 
minimum"  of  unemployables  that  will  preserve  their  self-respect 
and  that  of  the  nation. 

4.   Dissatisfaction  with  the  Work 

Many  workers  are  idle  because  the  jobs  they  had  or  could 
have  do  not  satisfy  them.  They  prefer  idleness  and  even  hun- 
ger to  working  under  the  unfavorable  conditions  open  to  them. 
They  refuse  to  work  for  certain  employers  who  offer  less  than 
the  going  rate  of  wages,  try  to  make  their  employes  work  over- 
time without  extra  pay,  are  "drivers,"  or  maintain  wet,  exces- 
sively hot,  or  improperly  heated  workplaces.  Sometimes  the 
hours  of  labor  are  too  long,  or  there  is,  too  much  overtime; 
sometimes  the  worker  is  underemployed.  Here  it  is  a  brutal 
foreman,  there  one  who  shows  favoritism;  in  another  shop, 
one  too  exacting.  Sometimes  the  cause  of  dissatisfaction  is 
real ;  sometimes  imaginary.  Workmen  quit  for  these  and  a 
hundred  other  reasons,  often  apparently  and  often  really  trifling, 
but  sufficient  to  make  them  dissatisfied  with  their  working 
conditions.  Trade  unions  voice  their  protests  against  bad  con- 
ditions by  sending  a  committee  to  see  the  firm.  The  unorgan- 
ized voice  their  protest  by  "asking  for  their  time." 

Employers  do  not  realize  the  number  of  establishments  or 
parts  of  establishments,  and  farms,  where  the  conditions  of 
employment  make  permanence  of  employment  impossible 
for  workmen.  They  do  not  realize  how  much  those  conditions 
increase  their  cost  of  production,  both  by  continual  change  in 
the  labor  force  and  decreased  production  by  those  at  work. 
Bad  light  produces  eyestrains  that  decrease  efiiciency  and  help 
induce  various  kinds  of  sickness.  Excessive  moisture,  extremes 
of  heat  and  cold,  draughts,  and  dust,  both  increase  illness  and 
cause  workmen  to  quit  to  seek  more  pleasant  workplaces. 
Sanitary  conveniences  that  are  repulsive  in  type  or  in  lack  of 
cleanliness  both  anger  workmen  and  spread  contagion.     Bad 


90  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

food,  lousy  beds,  frost  coming  up  through  scanty  floors,  absence 
of  mosquito  nettings,  drive  men  out  of  many  industrial  camps 
as  fast  as  they  can  be  brought  in.  Fines  and  petty  extortions 
often  keep  the  workmen  in  a  state  of  irritation  that  costs  the 
employer  more  than  the  exactions  benefit  him. 

The  workman  gets  little  for  his  toil  but  the  bare  necessities 
of  life,  and  employers  cannot  expect  a  loyal,  steady  labor  force 
when  the  workman's  conditions  of  employment,  or  the  living 
conditions  forced  on  him  by  his  employment,  do  not  give  him 
these  basic  needs.  Every  employer  of  labor  should  have  before 
his  eyes  some  constant  reminder  that  even  the  humblest  laborer 
works  better  and  steadier  when  he  likes  his  job,  likes  his  work- 
place, likes  his  employer.  Many  employers  have  disregarded 
the  fact  that  efficiency  is  increased  by  contentment.  Those  who 
have  realized  it  have  thereby  increased  their  profits  and  their 
men's  wages.  It  is  the  satisfied  workman  who  puts  his  whole 
heart  into  his  work.  Workmen  respond  to  justice  and  thought- 
fulness  on  the  part  of  the  employer  just  as  quickly  as  they  respond 
to  injustice,  indifference.  They  want  to  be  treated  as  men, 
not  as  hands.  Nothing  else  holds  a  steady,  efficient  force. 
Employers  have  not  realized  how  intensely  human  reactions  — 
the  very  reactions  which  would  dictate  their  own  actions  under 
the  same  conditions  —  determine  whether  or  not  their  men 
remain  with  them  and  the  amount  of  work  they  accomplish. 

The  "absence  of  a  sense  of  loyalty"  ^  in  many  wage  earners 
is  a  serious  matter.  No  workman  can  do  his  best  unless  his 
heart  is  in  his  work,  and  hosts  of  workers  have  no  heart  in  their 
work.  They  work  because  they  have  to.  Their  interest  is 
in  the  pay  envelope.  "Workhouse"  and  "prison"  are  terms 
not  infrequently  used  by  them  to  describe  their  place  of  employ- 
ment. This  mental  attitude,  which  leads  the  worker  to  do  as 
little  as  he  can  and  yet  draw  his  pay,  has  grown  up  in  American 
industry,  not  mainly  as  the  result  of  the  work  of  "agitators" 

1  "Industrial  Good  Will,"  J.  R.  Commons,  McGraw-Hill  Book  Co.,  191S,  is  an 
illuminating  discussion  of  the  value  to  employers  of  employees'  good  will  and  methods 
of  cultivating  it.  Cf.  also  "The  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,"  Sumner  Slichter; 
"Hiring  the  Worker,"  R.  W.  Kelly;  "Scientific  Management  and  Labor,"  R.  F. 
Hozie. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE   IDLE  91 

but  as  the  natural  reaction  of  human  psychology  to  the  existing 
industrial  environment.  Agitators  have  appealed  to  the  atti- 
tude and  cultivated  it,  but  industry  itself  is  responsible  for  its 
existence.  Progressive,  broadminded  and  forward-looking 
employers  may,  at  first  thought,  be  inclined  to  doubt  the  state- 
ment that  our  industries  have  provided  a  fertile  soil  and  good 
growing  conditions  for  antagonism  and  disloyalty  in  workmen, 
but  they  will  modify  their  points  of  view  if  they  impartially 
examine  some  of  the  experiences  of  the  worker.  The  minute 
subdivision  of  tasks ;  the  cutting  of  piece  rates  as  soon  as  the 
worker  earns  more  than  a  certain  wage ;  dirty,  cobwebbed  win- 
dows ;  and  a  multitude  of  other  conditions  which  can  be  found 
in  some  of  the  industries  of  every  manufacturing  city  combine 
to  produce  a  distaste  for  the  work  and  dislike  for  the  employer. 
Instead  of  awakening  in  the  workmen  a  sense  of  duty  to  do  their 
best  for  their  employers  they  arouse  in  them  a  determination 
to  do  as  little  as  they  can. 

These  are  but  a  few  of  the  influences  which  break  down  loy- 
alty. Knowledge  that  his  employment  will  probably  be  but 
temporary  prevents  a  worker  from  taking  the  interest  in  his 
work  which  he  would  take  if  he  expected  it  to  be  permanent. 
The  failure  of  most  employers  to  provide  definite  systems  of 
promotion,  the  refusal  of  employers  to  give  wage  earners  notice 
that  they  will  be  ''laid  off"  at  a  certain  time,  and  the  failure 
of  the  employer  to  show  (through  some  one  or  more  of  his 
officers)  a  personal  interest  in  his  workers,  imply  indifference  on 
his  part  to  the  welfare  of  his  men.  Sanitary  facilities  which 
suggest  that  the  worker  is  an  animal  without  esthetic  and  hy- 
gienic instincts;  bad  light  and  ventilation  and  draughty  win- 
dows ;  cold  workrooms  and  low  wages ;  and  a  variety  of  other 
influences  still  further  arouse  in  the  worker  the  convictions : 
(i)  that  the  employer  is  interested  in  him  only  for  what  he 
can  get  out  of  him  ;  (2)  that  the  employer  thinks  he  is  a  better, 
higher  type  of  man  than  the  worker ;  and  (3)  that  the  employer 
is  an  oppressor.  The  natural  reaction  is  to  get  all  he  can  out 
of  the  employer  and  give  him  as  little.  Inefficiency  is  inspired 
where  efficiency  could  be  inspired  as  easily.     The  employers 


92  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

lose  money  and  so  do  the  workers.    And  both  have  their  lives 
more  or  less  embittered  and  hardened. 

5.   Industrial  Incapacities 

Industrial  accidents,  occupational  illnesses,  and  occupational 
exposure  to  the  elements  constitute  another  group  of  industrial 
causes  of  idleness  which  displace  a  large  number  of  workmen 
each  year,  for  longer  or  shorter  periods.  It  is  well  known  that 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  workmen  are  disabled  each  year  by 
accidents,  and  many  of  them  rendered  wholly  or  partly  unem- 
ployable. The  waste  of  labor  power  by  occupational  disease 
and  exposure  has  not  yet  been  measured,  but  we  know  that  it 
is  enormous.  Idleness  due  to  these  causes  is  particularly  costly 
to  the  workmen  since  it  both  cuts  off  income  and  increases 
expenditures.  It  is  questionable  whether  our  workmen's  com- 
pensation laws  repay  to  the  workmen  of  America  twenty-five 
per  cent  of  their  financial  losses  due  to  industrial  accidents  and 
occupational  sicknesses.  The  employer  who  reduces  the  acci- 
dent and  sickness  risk  of  his  business  therefore  confers  a  large 
benefit  on  his  workman.  But  he  benefits  himself  equally  as 
much.  Every  time  a  man  is  disabled  a  new  man,  a  green  man, 
must  take  his  place.  It  costs  to  break  him  in,  he  retards  pro- 
duction during  his  learning  period,  and  in  most  industries  he 
is  an  increased  source  of  risk  to  the  remainder  of  the  force. 

The  effects  of  industrial  accidents  and  industrial  diseases 
upon  the  employment  and  earnings  of  workmen  may  be  illus- 
trated by  a  case  from  the  writer's  experience.^ 

A  Polish  laborer  in  an  iron  foundry  was  struck  on  the  head 
with  a  piece  of  iron.  He  recovered,  and  returned  to  work  for 
the  same  employer,  but  recurrent  sick  spells  prevented  him  from 
working  steadily.  He  was  often  incapacitated  for  weeks  at  a 
time.  The  employer  gave  him  work  when  he  was  able  to  work. 
He  stayed  with  the  employer  and  worked  every  day  that  he 
could  possibly  stay  in  the  foundry.     But  he  lost  more  time  than 

1  For  three  years  the  writer  had  charge  of  industrial  accident  and  workmen's 
compensation  work  for  the  Minnesota  Department  of  Labor  and  Industries.  The 
case  cited  is  but  typical  of  hundreds  that  came  under  his  observation. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  93 

he  worked,  and  he  made  only  a  common  laborer's  wages  when 
employed.  Seven  children  depended  upon  his  earnings.  His 
wife  had  to  go  out  washing  two  days  a  week.  The  two  older 
boys  worked  irregularly ;  the  older  one  was  not  strong  (a  clear 
product  of  mal-nutrition),  and  the  other  one  kept  getting  into 
trouble.  The  baby  died  —  it  had  been  getting  three  cents' 
worth  of  skimmed  milk  a  day,  diluted  with  water,  and  the 
care  of  a  ten-year-old  sister  when  its  mother  went  out  to  work. 
The  mother  died  of  heart  failure  after  a  hard  day's  work,  at 
the  age  of  thirty-eight.  The  children  were  of  course  doomed 
to  an  economic  life  not  much  different  from  that  of  their  parents 
by  the  circumstances  of  their  childhood.  The  writer  lost  track 
of  this  family  after  the  mother's  death,  but  the  above  history 
is  drawn  from  his  personal  observations  over  a  period  of  seven 
years. 

6.   Health  and  Employaeent 

Poor  health  is  the  most  important  of  all  causes  of  lost  time, 
personal  to  the  workman.  Sickness  causes  more  unemploy- 
ment than  any  other  one  cause  preventing  the  workman  from 
working.  Not  only  so,  poor  physique  is  a  widespread  cause 
of  inefficiency.  Economic  and  medical  writers  have  for  many 
years  been  pointing  out  the  physical  inefficiency  of  large  num- 
bers of  our  people,  but  there  was  no  general  admission  of  the 
fact  until  the  army  surgeons  made  their  reports  upon  the  drafted 
soldiers.  Then  the  nation  was  astounded.  Undernourish- 
ment, improper  food  selection,  crowded  sleeping  quarters, 
ignorance  of  personal  and  home  hygiene,  inadequate  medical 
care,  and  insufficient  convalesence  in  sickness;  drink,  vice, 
and  epidemic  diseases  are  among  the  more  important  causes 
of  this  sub-normal  physical  efficiency.  A  considerable  propor- 
tion of  working  class  children  are  cursed  from  childhood  with 
underfeeding  and  inadequate  clothing.  Investigation  will 
reveal  that  the  workingman's  children,  particularly  the  common 
laborers,  have  more  sickness  and  more  "children's  diseases" 
than    more    well-to-do    children.^    Their    physical    endurance 

'  The  reports  of  the  Children's  Bureau  of  the  United  States  Department  of 
Labor  furnish  current  data  in  evidence  of  the  disadvantages  which  the  child  of 
door  parents  must  carry. 


94  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

and  well-being  is  diminished  throughout  their  lives  by  the 
wearing  influence  of  these  disadvantages.  Even  when  we 
overlook  such  personal  factors  as  drink  and  vice,  which  impair 
the  strength  of  so  many,  it  is  apparent  that  there  are  plenty  of 
causes  to  prevent  our  workers  from  achieving  their  potential 
physical  powers. 

7.  Personal  Causes  of  Idleness  ^ 
There  are  well-recognized  causes  of  idleness  which  are  personal 
to  the  worker.  In  some  cases  industrial  conditions  have  con- 
tributed to  the  development  of  these  personal  shortcomings, 
but  in  a  large  percentage  of  cases  they  are  due  to  personal, 
home,  or  general  social  causes.  Intemperance,  vice,  laziness, 
bad  dispositions,  inability  to  get  along  with  others,  and  other 
personal  qualities  make  men  and  women  impossible  as  employees 
or  very  irregular.  A  large  percentage  of  the  unemployable 
and  irregular  workers  are  feeble-minded  or  represent  cases  of 
stunted  mental  development.  Tuberculosis,  rheumatism,  and 
other  chronic  diseases  and  disabilities  wholly  or  partly  incapaci- 
tate others ;  while  temporary  sickness,  either  of  the  wage  earner 
or  in  his  family,  such  as  typhoid,  scarlet  fever,  and  pneumonia, 
cause  loss  of  time  to  hundreds  of  thousands  each  year. 

These  personal,  non-industrial  causes  of  idleness  are  so  well 
known  that  one  needs  but  to  mention  them.  There  are  other 
personal  causes  of  idleness  and  irregularity  that  are  more  subtle 
but  do  an  immense  amount  of  harm.  For  instance,  note  the 
increase  in  labor  turnover  which  frequently  accompanies  a 
sharp  increase  in  wages.  It  has  been  noticed  again  and  again 
in  England,  France,  and  America  during  the  war.  Instead 
of  taking  advantage  of  the  higher  wages  to  improve  their  eco- 
nomic position,  many  workers  have  preferred  to  work  a  smaller 
number  of  days,  earn  approximately  the  same  amount  per  week 
as  formerly,  and  absorb  the  benefits  of  higher  daily  wages  in 
increased   idleness  rather   than   a  larger  income.     Employers 

1  Cf.  "Unemployment,  A  Social  Study,"  Rowntree  and  Lasker.  This  is  one  of 
the  best  studies  ever  presented  on  this  subject.  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of 
Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chaps.  VI-VII;  "One  Thousand  Homeless  Men," 
Alice  Solenberger. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  95 

of  southern  negroes,  the  peoples  found  on  many  islands  of 
the  sea,  and  various  groups  of  white  laborers  have  furnished 
illustrations  of  the  same  fact. 

The  explanation  of  this  phenomenon  is  a  simple  one,  but 
it  is  very  significant.  When  any  one's  income  exceeds  his 
standard  of  living  his  incentive  to  work  is  removed.  He  has 
nothing  to  work  for.  The  distinction  between  standard  of  liv- 
ing and  scale  of  living  must  be  carefully  recognized.  One's 
standard  of  living  is  in  his  mind.  It  is  his  conception  of  the  way 
he  wishes  to  live.  It  is  the  embodiment  of  his  desires.  One's 
scale  of  living  is  the  way  he  lives ;  not  the  way  he  wants  to  live. 
If  one  who  is  living  in  a  tenement  wants  to  own  a  home;  if 
he  patronizes  movies  when  he  wants  to  go  to  operas;  if  he 
walks  when  he  craves  an  automobile ;  if  he  toils  six  days  a  week 
when  he  wants  to  spend  the  winter  traveling  in  Europe;  he 
has  a  standard  of  living  far  above  his  scale  of  living.  A  marked 
increase  in  his  income  would  be  absorbed  in  bringing  his  scale 
of  living  nearer  to  his  standard.  Higher  wages  will  make  him 
work  harder,  and  the  probabilities  are  that  his  standard  will 
keep  rising  as  his  scale  of  living  rises,  thus  giving  him  a  continu- 
ing incentive  to  work  harder  and  harder. 

But  one  whose  standard  of  living  rises  no  higher  than  satisfy- 
ing his  stomach  with  "  something  that  will  fill  up  "  or  who  has 
no  abhorrence  for  the  crowding  of  the  tenement,  is  happy  when 
he  has  a  bottle  and  some  cigarettes,  and  is  content  with  the 
clothes  that  come  from  the  second-hand  store,  has  a  standard 
of  living  quickly  attained.  He  will  see  no  reason  for  working 
as  long  as  he  has  some  money  in  his  pockets.  "Why  should 
I  take  a  job?  I'm  not  broke,"  is  an  expression  that  is  familiar 
to  employment  ofiice  managers.  In  the  state  employment 
office  at  Minneapolis  we  distinguished  between  men  who  wanted 
work  and  "visitors."  At  times,  one  half  or  two  thirds  of  the 
men  who  came  into  the  office  to  inquire  about  work  had  no  in- 
tention of  accepting  any.  They  were  "visiting"  the  various 
employment  offices  to  "get  a  line  on"  opportunities  of  employ- 
ment and  wages,  but  would  not  accept  work  until  their  money 
^^as  entirely  gone.     Then  they  wanted  a  free  shipment  to  some 


96  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

camp  so  that  they  could  sleep  in  a  warm  train  and  get  their 
meals  at  the  employer's  expense  until  payday.  Their  standard 
of  living  and  scale  of  living  were  identical.  Certain  crude 
physical  wants  and  an  amount  of  mental  and  nervous  excite- 
ments included  them  both. 

The  defect  in  these  men  is  a  defect  in  vision,  a  wrong  sense 
of  values.  Ambitions  have  died  or  have  never  been  awakened. 
The  future  holds  no  hope.  There  is  no  lure  to  a  higher  scale 
of  living.  The  mind  is  sordid  and  it  leaves  the  hands  nothing 
to  strive  for.  Either  the  intellect  is  subnormal,  the  education 
defective,  or  the  personality  dragged  down  by  ignorance,  drink, 
and  vice.  Often  all  of  these  influences  are  present,  for  each  of 
them  tends  to  cau^e  the  presence  of  the  others.  Employers 
who  are  far-sighted  enough  to  help  their  employees  attain  higher 
standards  of  living  soon  find  that  they  have  a  higher  standard 
of  employees,  for  the  men  are  soon  busily  engaged  in  tr^'ing 
to  bring  their  scale  of  living  up  to  that  higher  standard.  Em- 
ployers who  prefer  that  their  men  shall  be  ignorant  and  coarse, 
and  live  accordingly,  as  has  been  true  in  some  steel  manufactur- 
ing, mining,  and  other  industrial  districts,  and  in  many  lumber- 
ing, railway,  and  agricultural  camps,  inevitably  attract  to  them- 
selves an  irresponsible,  unambitious,  and  unstable  class  of  labor. 
In  other  words,  working  efl&ciency  is  impossible  without  spend- 
ing efficiency.  People  must  know  how  to  live  if  they  are  going 
to  know  how  to  work.  A  mind  which  is  focused  on  improvement, 
and  which  has  ambitions  for  better  living,  is  essential  for  the 
production  of  a  state  of  mind  that  produces  enterprise  and  energy 
in  work.  Another  peculiar  fact  about  these  high  and  low  stand- 
ard types  of  minds  is  that  the  man  whose  mind  is  so  awakened 
that  he  has  a  standard  of  living  beyond  his  present  attainment 
often  falls  farther  behind  his  standard  as  he  advances  in  earn- 
ing capacity.  His  mind  advances  faster  than  his  earnings. 
Instead  of  weakening,  his  stimulus  gets  stronger  as  he  proceeds. 
But  the  man  whose  scale  of  living  is  his  statidard  does  not  raise 
his  standard.  He  lives  in  his  slough,  imless  some  violent  new 
force  comes  into  his  life  to  catch  hold  of  the  ebbing  self-respect 
and  put  him  on  his  feet  again. 


OCCUPATIONAL   IDLENESS  AND   THE   IDLE  97 

8.   Non-Industrial  Causes  of  Idleness 

The  causes  of  idleness  which  we  have  discussed  thus  far 
have  all  been  related,  directly  or  indirectly,  to  working  condi- 
tions or  the  economic  motives  of  workers.  There  are  also  non- 
industrial  causes  of  idleness.  Fires  are  perhaps  the  most  com- 
mon of  these  extra-industrial  forces.  Thousands  of  industrial 
plants  are  either  destroyed  or  crippled  by  fire  in  the  course  of 
each  year,  throwing  tens  of  thousands  of  work  people  out  of 
employment  for  longer  or  shorter  periods,  and  forcing  many  of 
them  to  seek  work  with  other  employers.  Widespread  epi- 
demics like  the  influenza  epidemic  of  191 8;  disasters  like  the 
San  Francisco  earthquake  and  the  Galveston  flood,  or  like  the 
floods  which  almost  annually  disturb  transportation,  close 
factories,  and  otherwise  disturb  business  in  Ohio,  Michigan, 
and  many  other  states  during  the  early  spring;  cyclones; 
waves  of  excessive  heat ;  unusually  heavy  falls  of  snow  such  as 
seriously  disturbed  production  through  most  of  the  northern 
states  in  the  winter  of  191 7-1 8,  suddenly  and  unexpectedly 
cut  off  for  the  time  being  the  livelihood  of  many  people.  The 
fact  that  these  causes  of  unemployment  largely  lie  outside  human 
control  does  not  permit  us  to  ignore  their  existence.  They 
increase  the  amount  of  idleness  each  year.  They  often  produce 
extremely  acute  poverty  situations.  And  it  is  possible,  as  we 
will  show  later,  to  have  our  labor  market  so  organized  that  we 
will  not  have  to  depend  entirely  upon  charity  for  the  relief  of 
these  situations. 

9.  iNcroENCE  OF  Unemployment 
There  are  two  distinct  problems  which  arise  in  connection 
with  the  causes  of  idleness.  The  first  is,  "Why  do  workmen 
lose  time?"  and  the  second,  "What  determines  which  particular 
workman  will  be  the  one  to  be  idle?  "  We  have  been  discussing 
the  first  of  these  problems,  and  will  now  pass  to  the  discussion 
of  the  second. 

Unemployment,  irregular  employment,  and  underemploy- 
ment do  not  fall  with  equal  force  upon  all  members  of  the  work- 
ing class.     If  economic  conditions  are  such  that  some  men  must 

H 


98  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

be  laid  ofl  by  their  employers,  those  will  be  dismissed  who  are 
least  desirable.  The  personal  qualities  of  the  workmen  deter- 
mine to  a  large  extent  which  individuals  will  be  selected  for 
dismissal.^  The  fact  that  a  man  is  inclined  to  be  lazy,  insubor- 
dinate, irregular,  irresponsible,  or  is  a  poor  workman  may  be 
the  reason  why  he  rather  than  some  one  else  is  unemployed, 
though  in  no  sense  the  cause  of  there  being  unemployment.  The 
fact  that  a  workman  is  steady  and  efl&cient  may  likewise  be  the 
reason  why  he  holds  a  steady  job,  without  in  the  least  increasing 
the  total  number  of  employees  kept  by  his  employer.  In  con- 
sidering the  personal  factor  in  our  study  of  employment  it  is 
therefore  necessary  to  recognize  the  fact  that  the  unemployed 
are  not,  on  the  average,  the  equals  in  physique,  efficiency,  or 
character,  of  the  employed.  Many  reliable  workmen  are  out 
of  employment  on  each  day  of  the  year,  but  they  represent 
the  accidental,  rather  than  the  typical,  element  among  the 
unemployed.  On  the  whole,  the  efficiency,  man  for  man, 
of  those  out  of  work,  is  not  equal  to  that  of  those  at  work. 
Unemployment  falls  first  upon  the  heads  of  the  least  desirable 
workmen.  Our  programs  for  reducing  unemployment  must 
not  lose  sight  of  this  fact. 

We  have  already  pointed  out  that  the  fluctuations  of  unem- 
ployment divide  our  working  class  into  four  groups :  those  who 
work  steadily  through  the  year;  those  who  work  more  or  less 
steadily  but  regularly  work  at  two,  three,  or  several  jobs  in  the 
course  of  the  year ;  the  casuals,  who  never  work  more  than  a 
few  hours  or  days,  or  a  week  or  two  at  a  time ;  and  those  who 
are  on  the  lower  fringe  of  the  casual  group  and  so  nearly  unem- 
ployable that  they  work  but  seldom  and  very  little.  Their 
main  dependence  is  charity  rather  than  labor.  It  is  important 
that  we  now  consider  this  fact  a  little  further  in  its  relation  to 
the  personal  types  of  the  unemployed. 

Almost  every  industry  and  establishment  has  a  considerable 
fraction  of  steady  men  who  are  employed  throughout  the  year.^ 

•  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  p.  134. 
*A  clean-cut  illustration  is  afforded  by  the  description  of  gas  works  labor  in 
Webb's  "Seasonal  Trades." 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  99 

In  some  industries  it  is  ten  per  cent,  in  some  it  will  reach  ninety 
per  cent.  Probably  fifty  per  cent  of  our  entire  working  class  is 
included  in  this  group.  Except  in  times  of  severe  industrial 
depression,  they  work  year  in  and  year  out.  In  some  businesses 
this  group  loses  days  from  time  to  time  or  may  even  lose  a  few 
weeks  at  some  period  in  the  year;  in  others  they  lose  no  time 
except  for  sickness,  vacations,  and  similar  causes.  But  even 
when  unemployed  for  short  periods  these  men  have  no  worry 
about  employment.  They  know  that  they  have  work  that  they 
can  depend  on,  a  job  to  which  to  return,  a  job  that  will  give 
them  somewhere  near  a  full  year's  wages. 

Most  industries  likewise  have  a  group  of  irregulars  who  are 
hired  for  the  busy  season  and  dropped  when  the  dull  season 
arrives.     They  also  employ  some  casual  help  for  short  jobs. 

This  industrial  cleavage  between  steady  work  and  irregular 
work  naturally  leads  to  the  cleavage  we  are  speaking  of  among 
the  workers.  //  tends  to  separate  out  certain  workmen  for  steady 
work  and  others  for  unsteady.  Industrial  depressions,  violent 
seasonal  fluctuations  in  the  demand  for  labor,  the  bankruptcy 
of  an  employer,  and  similar  causes  at  times  throw  some  of  the 
steady  men  out  of  employment,  but  the  other  group  of  workers 
are  normally  unemployed  a  considerable  part  of  their  time. 
And  the  very  unemployment  which  is  meted  out  to  them  by 
competition  as  a  penalty  for  their  inefficiency,  in  turn  accen- 
tuates that  inefficiency  and  paves  the  way  for  worse  inefficiency. 

It  is  very  important  that  we  recognize  this  distinct  cleavage 
among  the  workers.  It  is  clearly  revealed  in  every  investi- 
gation that  has  looked  into  the  point.^  The  records  of  trade 
union  benefit  societies  show  that  it  is  the  same  group  of  men 
that  are  found  most  frequently  on  the  unemployment  relief 
rolls;  while  the  records  of  public  employment  offices  show  a 
definite  group  of  laborers,  skilled  and  unskilled,  returning  again 
and  again  through  the  year  looking  for  work.  The  Ohio  reports, 
for  instance,  show  that  from  one  fourth  to  one  third  of  the  appli- 
cants for  work  are  "renewals";  i.e.,  are  previous  customers. 

'  Cf.  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  Beveridge.  Chapter  \'II  of 
this  work  was  the  first  clear  demonstration  of  the  point. 


lOO  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

The  causes  which  produce  these  labor  types  are  as  varied  as 
the  causes  which  determine  human  personality.  Some  men 
are  born  with  a  steady,  industrious  temperament ;  others  are 
by  nature  unsteady,  flighty,  poorly  balanced ;  some  are  intelli- 
gent, others  handicapped  by  sadly  limited  mental  powers. 
Some  are  brought  up  by  "level-headed"  parents  in  a  healthy 
moral  atmosphere  and  trained  into  good  habits,  both  of  working 
and  living.  Others  are  fathered  by  drunkards  and  mothered 
by  slovens.  Some  have  good  schooling;  others  practically 
none  at  all.  Some  start  life  with  the  chances  in  their  favor 
and  make  shipwreck  of  the  venture  through  their  own  fault. 
The  accidents  of  fortune  which  enable  one  to  get  steady  employ- 
ment when  he  starts  his  working  life,  while  another  is  compelled 
to  shift  from  job  to  job  and  place  to  place,  separate  a  group  of 
the  steady  workers  on  the  one  hand  from  a  group  of  irregulars 
on  the  other. 

lo.   The  Unemployable 

The  problem  of  industrial  idleness  would  be  much  simplified 
if  all  idle  persons  were  idle  simply  because  they  could  not  get 
work.  Unfortunately,  as  we  have  stated  previously,  there  are 
those  who  will  not  work,  those  who  are  not  able  to  work,  and 
those  who  are  ineflficient,  as  well  as  those  who  are  able  and 
willing  to  work  but  cannot  get  work. 

We  have  the  unemployable  on  our  hands  as  well  as  the  un- 
employed, and  they  constitute  a  sociological  or  medical  problem, 
rather  than  a  purely  economic  problem.  Many  of  them  are 
apparently  able-bodied,  but  their  moral  values  are  disturbed. 
Others  are  mentally  or  morally  incapacitated.  Many  unem- 
ployables  are  idle  but  not  seeking  employment;  others  seek 
employment  but  hope  they  will  not  find  it ;  and  a  third  group 
desire  to  work  but  are  incapable  of  holding  a  position.  Part  of 
the  present  unemployables  could  be  made  capable  of  employ- 
ment by  medical  treatment  combined  with  some  sort  of  indus- 
trial training  or  preparation  for  employment,  who  at  present 
are  either  semi-criminal  or  criminal  social  parasites  who  subsist 
on  society  without  earning  their  subsistence,  or  are  proper 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE   IDLE  lOI 

persons  for  charitable  care.  In  statistics  of  unemployment 
they  are  ordinarily  included  among  the  unemployed  but  do  not 
constitute  any  true  part  of  the  labor  supply.  W.  H.  Beveridge 
has  described  the  type  who  will  not  work  in  the  following  words : 
"Each  of  these  is  in  truth  as  definitely  diseased  as  are  the  in- 
mates of  hospitals,  asylums,  and  infirmaries,  and  should  be 
classed  with  them.  Just  as  some  suffer  from  distorted  bodies 
and  others  from  distorted  intellects,  so  these  suffer  from  a 
distortion  of  judgment,  an  abnormal  estimate  of  values,  which 
makes  them,  unlike  the  vast  majority  of  their  fellows,  prefer 
the  pains  of  being  a  criminal  or  a  vagrant  to  the  pains  of  being 
a  workman."  ^ 

This  strictly  "unemployable"  class  might  logically  be  ex- 
cluded from  consideration  in  a  study  of  unemployment.  They 
are  not  affected  one  way  or  the  other  by  the  fact  of  unemploy- 
ment, except  that  some  of  them  are  at  least  in  part  the  products 
of  unemployment  at  an  earlier  period  in  their  lives.  But  it  is 
not  possible  entirely  to  exclude  them  from  consideration.  They 
shade  off  gradually  into  those  who  work  occasionally  but  either 
cannot  or  will  not  retain  regular  employment,  such  as  the 
casuals  who  are  found  hanging  around  free  employment  offices 
seeking  short  and  easy  jobs. 

The  unemployable  may  be  roughly  divided  into  two  groups : 
those  who  are  rendered  unemployable  by  physical  or  mental 
defects  and  those  who  are  made  unemployable  by  moral  defects. 
In  many  cases  the  physical  or  mental  defects  will  lead  to  moral 
defects.  In  others,  moral  defect  is  the  cause  of  physical  or 
mental  defect.  It  is  not  always  easy,  therefore,  to  definitely 
classify  an  individual  since  he  manifests  both  types  of  deficiency. 
But  the  distinction  is  nevertheless  important.  The  treatment 
of  the  two  classes  of  cases  must  be  radically  different.  The 
first  group  makes  a  stronger  claim  on  the  average  citizen's 
interest  than  the  second.  The  degree  of  social  responsibility 
for  the  human  product  is  different  in  the  two  classes  of  cases. 
Industrial  conditions  are  probably  more  responsible  for  the 
physical  and  mental  defectives  than  for  the  moral  defectives. 

1  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  p.  134. 


I02  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Economic  and  educational  reforms  could  perhaps  accomplish 
more  for  ihe  first  type  than  for  the  second. 

II.  Social  Costs  of  Unsteady  Employment 

The  cost  of  unsteady  employment  to  society  is  a  topic  that 
has  been  frequently  and  ably  presented. 

^  The  first  and  most  apparent  efect  of  unsteady  employment  is 
its  ejffect  on  wages.*  And  it  is  one  of  the  most  important  effects. 
X)ur  incomes  are  one  of  the  determinmg  factors  in  our  hves. 
They  determine,  to  a  considerable  extent,  where  we  can 
live,  how  we  can  live,  and  what  opportunities  we  can  give  our 
children.    , 

Unsteady  employment  affects  wages  in  four  ways  :  it  reduces 
the  amount  of  the  workman's  earnings ;  it  causes  irregularity 
of  income ;  it  produces  uncertainty  of  income ;  and  it  decreases 
his  efficiency.  It,  therefore,  cuts  down  both  present  earnings 
and  future  earnings.  Financially  considered,  it  probably 
reduces  the  annual  earnings  of  American  workers  more  than 
a-ny  other  type  of  misfortune  to  which  they  are  exposed.;^  Here 
and  there  industrial  accidents,  sickness,  a  bad  investment,  or 
some  other  misfortune  may  bring  more  serious  adversity  to  an 
individual  family  or  even  to  an  individual  community,  but 
no  other  form  of  industrial  adversity  impairs  the  livelihood 
and  seriously  decreases  the  earning  power  of  so  many  working 
people.  The  figures  cited  in  the  previous  chapter  showed 
jthat  from  one  to  several  million  employees  are  out  of  work  in  the 
/United  States  at  all  times.  *  The  personnel  of  the  group  changes, 
but  the  group  is  ever  present.  In  addition,  there  are  large 
numbers  who  are  irregularly  and  insufficiently  employed.  ^ 

What  this  means  to  the  workers  may  be  suggested  by  a  brief 
consideration  of  the  results  of  unemployment  in  Chicago  in 
the  winter  of  1913-14.^ 

%The  report  of  the  county  commissioners  of  Cook  County, 
Illinois,  for  1913-14  shows  that  250,000  residents  of  Cook 
County  received  charitable  aid  during  the  year;   one  in  ten  of 

1  The  illustration  is  simply  selected  as  a  typical  case.  The  conditions  it  reveals 
are  common  throughout  the  United  States  and  in  Europe. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE   IDLE  103 

the  total  population.  The  United  Charities  alone  received 
applications  for  help  from  20,628  families,  comprising  over 
80,000  people.  During  the  previous  year  they  received  appli- 
cations from  but  14,269  families  with  56,000  individuals.  In 
1913-1914  when  over  20,000  families  asked  help,  9514  were  in 
need  because  of  unemployment,  and  888  because  of  insufficient 
earnings  (underemployment).  Unsteady  work  caused  a  little 
over  one  half  of  the  applications  for  help.  In  191 2-13,  when 
but  14,269  families  applied,  only  2066  were  cases  of  unemploy- 
ment and  817  of  insufficient  earnings.  Only  20  per  cent  of 
the  cases,  therefore,  were  employment  cases.  The  entire 
increase  in  charitable  calls  in  1913-14  over  191 2-13  (as 
measured  by  the  experience  of  the  United  Charities)  was  due 
to  the  increase  in  unemployment.  If  but  20  per  cent,  instead 
of  50  per  cent,  of  the  calls  for  help  in  that  year  were  due  to  un- 
steady work,  it  would  certainly  be  matter  for  serious  consider- 
ation.* 

But  let  us  carry  the  analysis  a  step  further.  Twenty-five 
hundred  and  thirty  families  applied  for  help  in  1913-14  and 
1330  in  191 2-13  because  of  the  birth  of  a  child.  This  was 
12  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  cases  in  1913-14  and  9  per 
cent  of  those  in  191 2-14.  These  cases,  toOjVere  due  to  insuffi- 
cient earnings  —  to  unemployment,  underemployment,  and 
low  wages. 

The  effects  of  irregular  employment  upon  income  may  be 
further  illustrated  by  a  few  figures  gathered  in  recent  investi- 
gations. In  Connecticut  it  was  found  that  the  actual  earnings 
of  942  cotton  mill  workers  fell  13  per  cent  below  full-time 
earnings;  of  1175  silk  workers  18.2  per  cent  below  full  time; 
of  662  brass  workers,  14.3  per  cent  below;  of  701  hardware' 
workers,  14.1  per  cent  below,  and  of  2541  metal  workers,  13.9 
per  cent  below.' 

The  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission  found 
that  62.1  per  cent  of  the  paper  box  workers  investigated  in  New 
York  City,  and  63.4  per  cent  of  the  confectionery  workers,  fell 

1  Connecticut  Commission  of  Wage  Earning  Women  and  Minors,  Report  of 
February  4,  1913. 


I04  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

more  than  lo  per  cent  below  full-time  earnings.*  The  Com- 
mission comments  on  these  and  similar  figures  in  the  following 
.words:  ^  "This  study  of  the  actual  incomes  of  working  women 
[brings  out  clearly  the  indisputable  fact  that  rate  of  pay  is  but 
little  indication  of  income ;  ...  it  is  found  that  for  trained  and 
experienced  workers  also,  the  actual  income  falls  from  lo  per 
cent  to  20  per  cent  below  the  possible  income  based  on  rate  of 
pay."  Regularity  of  employment  is  as  vital  to  the  worker 
as  a  living  wage.  It  is  inextricably  bound  up  with  the  ques- 
tion of  what  wages  are  necessary  to  maintain  the  employees 
of  any  given  industry.  No  worker  can  count  on  casual  or 
supplementary  work  to  fill  in  the  time  lost  by  industrial  fluc- 
tuations of  employment.  No  worker  can  count  on  less  than 
the  usual  expectancy  of  sickness.  The  question  of  irregularity 
of  employment  is  a  very  vital  one  to  the  woman  earning  wages 
barely  sufi&cient  to  maintain  her  even  when  she  has  steady 
work. 

*  The  records  of  the  Charity  Organization  Society  of  New 
York  revealed  in  191 1  that  the  majority  of  those  who  applied 
for  relief  were  men  of  unskilled  occupations,  and  "the  skilled 
trades  represented  were  those  which  are  highly  seasonal  in  their 
demand  for  labor.  *  Thus  about  half  the  men  were  laborers, 
teamsters,  or  longshoremen  and  about  15  per  cent  belonged  to 
the  building  trades.  Laborers  and  the  building  trades  were 
the  two  most  highly  represented  callings."  •"Irregular  or 
casual  employment  is  characteristic  of  unskilled  labor  and 
seasonal  fluctuations  mark  the  building  trades.  Despite  the 
high  wages  in  the  latter,  the  discontinuous  employment  seems 
to  have  a  demoralizing  effect."  ^  * 

*  The  New  York  Society  for  Improving  the  Condition  of  the 
]  Poor  declared  the  same  year  thaf*  "70  per  cent  of  our  appli- 
'  cants  would  probably  require  no  outside  aid  if  work  could  be 

'  Fourth  Report  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission,  igis,  Vol.  II, 
Appendix  IV,  pp.  512,  513. 

^  Ibid.,  p.  sii- 

'  New  York  Report  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment,  Appendix  VII, 
p.  148. 

*  Ibid.,  p.  151. 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND   THE   IDLE  105 

regular  and  continuous,  and  wages  proportionate  to  service 
rendered  and  price  of  living,"  and  of  the  remaining  30  per  cent 
they  state  that  two  thirds  would  fail  of  self-support  only  because 
of  "  poor  management  or  general  inefficiency  "  and  that  their  need 
would  consist  largely  of  "direction  and  educational  attention. 'J^ 

The  reports  of  the  Massachusetts  Commission  on  Minimum 
Wage  Boards  furnish  additional  facts  on  the  depreciation  of 
annual  earnings.  They  found  that  although  72.8  per  cent  of 
the  workers  in  the  women's  clothing  industry  were  rated  to 
earn  $6  a  week  or  over,  only  49.9  per  cent  actually  earned  it.^ 

The  suggestion  of  Frank  Julian  Warne  that  a  man  out  of 
work  "is  not  a  problem  for  anybody"  "as  long  as  he  is  able 
to  take  care  of  himself"  will  not  be  questioned  by  anyone  who 
looks  at  irregularity  of  employment  as  a  charity  problem,  but 
will  be  disputed  by  every  one  who  recognizes  that  unemploy- 
ment, whether  it  leads  to  charity  or  not,  is  a  menace  to  the  secur- 
ity of  family  life ;  a  source  of  demoralization  to  character,  and 
a  preventive  of  adequate  training  of  children.  Few  who  have 
studied  the  employment  situation  will  coincide  with  his  com- 
ments on  the  seasonal  trades : 

"  Take  the  men  of  seasonal  occupations ;  it  is  very  much  a  matter  of 
doubt  in  my  mind,  whether  a  seasonal  occupation  is  a  problem  of  un-. 
employment.  I  am  inclined  to  think  it  is  more  a  wage  problemi 
For  instance,  if  a  man  is  out  of  work  three  months  of  the  year,  if  h&' 
is  able  to  take  care  of  himself,  if  he  has  earned  during  nine  months 
enough  money  to  take  care  of  himself  during  three  months,  it  is  no 
more  of  a  problem  of  unemployment  than  if  a  man  is  idle  one  day  out 
of  seven.  I  would  say,  as  a  general  statement,  this  great  problem 
of  building  trades,  a  seasonal  occupation,  is  not  a  problem  of  unem- 
ployment at  all.  There  may  be  certain  numbers  of  men  engaged 
in  those  trades  that  fall  into  the  unemployed  class,  but  as  a  rule,  they 
all  get  sufficiently  high  wages  to  take  care  of  themselves  the  rest  of 
the  year.  .  .  .  My  idea  is  to  find  out,  as  far  as  possible,  the  definite, 
concrete  facts  as  regards  the  effect  of  unemployment,  then  find  out 
as  much  as  possible  about  the  definite,  concrete  causes  of  unemploy- 
ment.    My  own  idea  is  that  there  is  no  cure-all;  Mr.  Bates'  rec- 

'  Bulletin  No.  9,  September,  1915.  "Wages  of  Women  in  Women's  Clothing 
Factories  in  Massachusetts." 


io6  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

ommendation  that  you  distribute  labor  is  only  an  insignificant  small 
part  of  the  problem  of  unemployment."  ^ 

The  Massachussetts  Minimum  Wage  Commission  found 
that  more  than  one  half  of  those  scheduled  to  receive  over  $8 
a  week  in  retail  stores  failed  to  get  it,^  and  that  a  similar 
situation  obtained  in  the  paper  box  factories.^  They  found 
that  though  only  24.8  per  cent  of  the  employees  in  candy 
factories  were  supposed  to  draw  less  than  $5  a  week,  49  per 
cent  actually  fell  below  that  amount.^ 

Three  hundred  and  sixty-five  trade  unions  in  New  Yorlu 
reported  in  1909  that  but  two  thirds  of  their  members  worked 
the  year  round;  191  reported  an  average  dull  season  of  three 
and  one  third  months,  while  211  showed  an  average  loss  in 
wages  of  20.9  per  cent.  The  figures  for  unskilled  labor  would, 
of  course,  be  at  least  as  bad.^ 

It  is  impossible  to  tell  how  much  the  actual  earnings  of 

America's  laboring  classes  in  the  course  of  a  year  fall  short  of 

their  potential  earnings  because  of  loss  of  time.     Neither  is  it 

necessary.    Any  one  who  reads  our  preceding  chapter  knows 

that  the  loss  of  wages  sustained  by  our  workers  is  enormous. 

He  knows  that  millions  of  families  receive  ten,  fifteen,  twenty, 

or  twenty-five  per  cent  less  wages  in  the  course  of  a  year  than 

they  would  receive  if  wage  earners  worked  full  time. 

%    Irregularity  of  earnings  has  almost  as  vicious  effects  as  their 

absolute    reduction.     It   prevents    intelligent   expenditure    of 

the  income,  encourages  improvidence,  and  prevents  planning 

I  of   purchasing.     It   leads   almost   inevitably    to   extravagance 

i!  when  earnings  are  good,  and  debts  when  work  is  slack. ^ 

*  Report  of  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability,  April,  igii. 
Appendix  XI,  pp.  175-176. 

2  Bulletin  No.  6,  March,  1915,  "Wages  of  Women  in  Retail  Stores." 

'  Bulletin  No.  8,  September,  1915,  "Wages  of  Women  in  Paper  Box  Factories." 

<  Bulletin  No.  4,  October,   1914,   "Wages  of  Women  in  Candy  Factories  in 

Massachusetts." 

'  Report  of  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment, 

191 1,  pp.  162-163. 

*  For  Epecific  illustrations  see  Volume  XVI,  Report  on  Condition  of  Woman  and 
Child  Wage  Earners  in  the  United  States,  Senate  Document  No.  645,  6ist  Congress, 
2d  Session,  on  "Family  Budgets  of  Typical  Cotton  Mill  Workers" 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  107 

It  is  not  difficult  to  get  plenty  of  illustrations  of  the  wage 
losses  of  specific  industrial  groups  due  to  irregular  work.     The 
reports  of  the  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission, 
the    Massachusetts,    Connecticut,    Washington,    Oregon,    and 
other  minimum  wage  commissions,  and  some  of  the  bulletins 
of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  abound  in  data. 
Since  our  interest  is  in  the  readjustments  in  industry  and  in 
employment  methods  that  will  mitigate  the  situation,  rather 
than  the  statistics  of  unemployment,  we  will  not  delay  longer 
to  prove  a  case  that  has  been  proved  again  and  again. 
'     Unsteady   employment   attacks    the   worker's  efficiency   in 
1  so  many  ways  that  probably  no  one  could  enumerate  them  all. 
)  It  undermines  his  physique,  deadens  his  mind,  weakens  his 
(   ambition,  destroys  his  capacity  for  continuous,  sustained  en- 
/    deavor ;  induces  a  liking  for  idleness  and  self-indulgence ;  saps 
/     self-respect  and  the  sense  of  responsibility;    impairs  technical 
'      skill ;    weakens  nerve  and  will  power ;    creates  a  tendency  to 
blame  others  for  his  failures ;  saps  his  courage ;  prevents  thrift 
and  hope  of  family  advancement;   destroys  a  workman's  feel- 
ing that  he  is  taking  good  care  of  his  family ;  sends  him  to  work 
worried  and  underfed ;    plunges  him  in  debt.     Mr.  John  A. 
Hobson  has  wisely  stated  that,  "Though  the  physical,  moral, 
and  social  injuries,  due  to  alternating  periods  of  over-  and  under- 
work, are  generally  admitted,  the  full  costs  of  such  irregularity, 
human  and  even  economic,   are  far  from  being  adequately 
realized,  ...  by  the  workers  themselves  and  even  by  social 
reformers,  the  injury  infficted  upon  wages  and  the  standard  of 
living  by  irregularity  of  employment  is  appreciated  far  more 
adequately  than  the  related  injury  infficted  on  the  physique  and 
morale  of  the  worker  by  sandwiching  periods  of   overexertion 
between  intervals  of  idleness."  ^     \ 

The  case  is  even  more  powerfully  presented  in  Webbs'  "Sea- 
sonal Trades"  (p.  51) :  "All  who  have  experience  of  such  situa- 
tions testify  to  the  nerve  racking  effect  of  habitual  running  into 
debt  with  the  prospect  of  paying  out  of  the  wages  of  uncertain 
future  employment. 

1  "Work  and  Wealth;  A  Human  Valuation,"  J.  A.  Hobson,  igi4,  pp.  79-80. 


io8  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

"...  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  nervous  reactions  to  such 
demoralizing  influences  are  so  powerful  as  to  transform  many 
strong-willed,  well-intentioned  workmen  into  the  irregular 
material  that  overfills  the  army  of  casual  labour  or  even  into 
the  will-less,  hopeless,  indifferent  objects  called  the  unemploy- 
able. Demoralisation,  moral  and  physical,  is  the  inevitable 
result.  One  foreman  speaks  vividly  of  the  effect  of  a  spell  of 
unemployment.  The  man's  skill  deteriorates,  because  he  does 
not  get  enough  food  for  a  start  and  is  not  half  worth  his  money. 
...  I  naturally  have  to  get  a  job  out  as  quickly  as  possible ; 
it  is  my  duty  to  do  so.  If  I  employ  a  man  who  cannot  do  his 
work  and  he  fails  in  an  hour  or  two  because,  perhaps,  he  has 
not  been  fed  for  weeks  as  he  ought  to  have  been,  I  have  to  dis- 
miss him.  I  do  not  know  the  cause  of  the  failure,  and  I  do  not 
ask  the  cause.  I  cannot  go  to  him  and  say,  '  My  man,  have  you 
not  had  anything  to  eat  for  a  week? '  or  something  of  that  sort. 
I  simply  say,  '  Come  to  the  ofhce  and  get  your  money.' 

"It  is  a  generally  admitted  fact  that  regularity  of  employ- 
ment is  essential  for  the  preservation  of  the  physique  and  morale 
of  the  worker.  A  keen  observer,  and  one  well  acquainted  with 
conditions  in  London,  says  that  the  poverty  that  is  due  to  low 
wages  is,  in  London,  less  in  volume  as  well  as  less  acute  than  that 
which  is  consequent  on  some  form  of  lack  of  work.  He  quotes 
the  words  of  a  workingman,  who  says:  'The  great  curse  of  a 
journeyman's  life  is  irregularity  of  employment.  When  I 
thought  it  likely  that  I  should  be  thrown  out  of  employment 
it  seemed  to  paralyse  me  completely,  and  I  used  to  sit  at  home 
brooding  over  it  until  the  blow  fell.  .  .  .  The  fear  of  being 
turned  oH  is  the  worst  thing  in  a  workingman's  life,  and  more  or 
less  acutely  it  is  almost  always,  in  the  case  of  the  vast  majority, 
present  to  his  mind.'  " 

The  New  York  Commission  says : 

"The  effects  of  unemployment  as  gathered  from  the  records  in  these 
cases  illustrate  very  strongly  what  the  most  dangerous  results  of  un- 
employment are.  First,  is  the  fact  that  when  a  man  is  thrown  out  of 
regular  employment  he  is  likely  after  a  time  to  take  any  job  that  is 
offered.    This  draws  him  into  the  great  group  of  irregular,  casual 


OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  AND  THE  IDLE  109 

laborers.  At  first,  unable  to  get  steady  work,  he  soon  becomes 
unable  to  work  steadily,  even  if  the  work  be  available.  Secondly, 
the  unemployed  workman  with  a  family  to  support  is  apt  to  resume 
work  after  a  period  of  idleness  at  a  wage  lower  than  his  real  earning 
capacity.  The  necessity  of  his  condition  compels  him  to  accept  any 
wage  that  is  offered.  Thirdly,  the  lower  earning  capacity  of  the  men 
compels  the  women  to  go  out  to  work,  and  that  means  several  children 
neglected.  And  fourthly,  the  children  neglected  whUe  they  are  under 
the  legal  working  age  are  sent  to  work  as  soon  as  the  law  allows. 
The  reason  that  we  found  such  few  cases  in  which  children  were 
contributing  to  the  support  of  the  family  is  that  they  were  too  young. 
As  soon  as  they  reach  the  legal  age  they  help  to  keep  the  family  self- 
supporting  ;  but  they  are  seldom  trained  in  any  occupation  which  will 
make  them  capable  of  supporting  a  family  when  they  grow  up ;  for 
that  means  a  period  of  apprenticeship  with  little  or  no  earnings,  and 
the  family  needs  the  earnings  of  the  child  at  once.  Thus  is  the  cycle 
repeated.  The  present  family's  self-support  is  secured  by  making  the 
future  generation  liable  to  dependency."  ^ 

Commissioner  John  Mitchell,  summed  up  the  whole  matter 
in  a  nutshell  when  he  said : 

"All  the  data  regarding  unemployment  is  so  very  easy  of  access  — 
you  can  be  simply  smothered  in  information  regarding  the  volume  of 
unemployment.  People  cannot  get  jobs;  there  is  no  use  talking; 
the  thing  is  to  arrive  at  a  remedy."  ^ 

Mr.  Lyndon  Bates  also  stresses  the  need  for  action : 

"To  get  down  to  this  particular  subject  about  the  fact  of  unem- 
ployment, I  beUeve  anybody  who  has  been  in  poHtics  in  New  York, 
and  had  an  average  of  about  ten  men  a  day  at  times  come  up  looking 
for  work,  and  simply  going  to  their  assemblyman  or  alderman  because 
he  is  the  outward  and  visible  sign  of  officialdom,  where  you  see  appar- 
ently about  half  of  those  men  are  clean,  decent,  hard-working  people 
that  simply  cannot  get  work,  you  could  get  a  pretty  good  idea  of  the 
fact  that  very  certainly  unemployment  does  exist,  and  when  you 

1  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
April,  igii,  p.  150. 

2  Commissioner  John  Mitchell  in  Report  of  New  York  Commission  on  Em- 
ployers' Liability,  April,  igii,  Appendix  XI,  p.  17,?.  Cf.  also  "Misery  and  Its 
Causes,"  E.  T.  Devine,  especially  Chaps.  Ill  and  V. 


no  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

have  seen  those  men  in  the  course  of  a  year  or  two  years  go  down  into 
the  lower  ken  you  cannot  help  feeling  a  certain  amount  of  sympathy 
and  a  desire  that  some  of  the  brains  and  some  of  the  intelligence 
of  the  body  poUtic  be  put  into  this  problem."  ^ 

1  Lyndon  Bates  in  Report  of  New  York  Commission  on  Employers*  Liability, 
April,  iQii,  Appendix  XI,  p.  169. 


CHAPTER  IV 
LABOR  TURNOVER 

Ten  years  ago  the  expression  "labor  turnover"  was  known 
only  to  a  limited  number  of  employment  managers  and  business 
men.  Five  years  ago  it  had  become  a  familiar  term  in  employ- 
ment ofl&ces  and  among  a  somewhat  larger  group  of  employers. 
During  the  war  the  idea  of  ''labor  turnover"  became  familiar 
to  the  nation.  Ten  years  ago  literature  on  the  subject  was 
hard  to  find.  To-day  books,  magazines,  technical  papers,  and 
even  the  daily  press  abound  in  discussions  of  the  subject.  The 
nation  is  now  awakening  to  the  menace  of  ceaseless  shiftings 
of  labor  as  it  awakened  between  1907  and  191 2  to  industrial 
accidents,  and  as  it  has  been  awaking  for  the  last  fifteen  years 
to  its  need  for  some  adequate  system  of  industrial  education. 

Labor  turnover,  or  the  shifting  of  workers  from  job  to  job, 
is  found  throughout  our  industries.  Technically  speaking, 
turnover  occurs  whenever  a  workman's  employment  is  termi- 
nated and  another  person  is  employed  in  his  place.  He  may 
have  died,  obtained  advancement  with  another  concern,  gone 
into  business  for  himself,  or  quit  to  "join  the  leisure  class." 
Practically  only  that  turnover  due  to.  preventable  causes,  and 
which  produces  a  loss  either  to  individuals  or  to  society,  is  worthy 
of  discussion.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to  distinguish  at  once 
between  normal  or  necessary  labor  turnover,  and  abnormal  or 
unnecessary  turnover. 

Normal  turnover  occurs  when  workers  leave  their  employ- 
ment for  death,  serious  or  chronic  illness,  a  disabling  accident, 
old  age,  to  continue  their  education,  to  go  into  business  or  on  a 
farm,  to  marry,  to  accept  a  better  position  with  another  em- 
ployer, or  similar  reasons.  Abnormal  turnover  occurs  when 
the  severance  of  employment  is  due  to  such  causes  as  careless 


112  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

methods  of  hiring,  discharging,  and  handUng  men ;  to  wages 
lower  than  those  offered  by  competing  estabhshments ;  to 
unheahhy  or  disagreeable  shop  conditions;  unfair  systems  of 
computing  or  paying  wages;  the  wanderlust  of  workers;  the 
unreliability  or  unsteadiness  of  employees,  the  excessive  fluc- 
tuation of  labor  demand  described  in  our  second  chapter,  and 
the  labor  supply.  Such  turnover  seriously  decreases  national 
production ;  wastes  and  destroys  labor  power ;  prevents  a 
large  part  of  our  labor  force  from  developing  that  efficiency 
which  is  possible  to  it ;  increases  unemployment  and  under- 
employment ;  and  impairs  the  quality  of  the  man  (and  woman) 
power  of  the  country. 

The  labor  turnover  which  we  called  "normal"  simply  con- 
stitutes one  of  the  facts  of  life  to  which  we  must  adjust  ourselves 
with  the  fewest  words  possible.  It  is  at  times  irritating,  but 
does  not  constitute  an  industrial  problem.  Indeed  it  is  in  many 
cases  a  distinct  benefit.^  Abnormal  turnover,  however,  is  a 
distinct  menace  to  our  social  welfare.  In  discussing  it,  we  are 
considering  the  labor  reserve  of  our  first  chapter,  the  fluctuating 
demand  for  labor  of  our  second  chapter,  and  the  occupational 
idleness  of  our  third  chapter  from  another  point  of  view.  We 
are  now  discussing  the  process  of  labor  shifting  as  a  serious  evil 
in  itself.  "Labor  turnover,  which  is  a  group  phenomenon  and 
not  an  individual  question,  suddenly  looms  up  as  an  intangible 
overhead  cost.  The  employee  or  superintendent  or  publicist 
who  fully  grasps  all  that  is  implied  in  this  profound  subject 
of  labor  turnover  will  be  in  a  position  to  meet  the  critical  prob- 
lems of  the  future."  ^ 

Abnormal  labor  turnover  is  due  to  a  variety  of  causes.^  Our 
first  chapter  demonstrated  that  a  continuing,  decentraHzed 
labor  surplus  in  a  country  devoid  of  an  organized  labor  market 
naturally  leads  to  incessant  changes  in  the  personnel  of  employ- 

*  Cf.  "Labor  Turnover,"  George  J.  Eberle,  American  Ecofwmic  Review,  March, 
1919. 

''John  R.  Commons,  in  "The  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,"  Sumner  Slichter, 
1919,  p.  xiv. 

'  Much  information  on  turnover  is  scattered  through  other  chapters..  Chapter 
in  must  be  read  with  Chapter  IV.     The  index  contains  other  citations. 


LABOR  TURNOVER  II3 

ers'  labor  forces.  Our  second  chapter  showed  that  the  fluctua- 
tions of  labor  demand,  alternately  suck  workers  into  industry 
and  cast  them  out ;  both  forcing  a  considerable  portion  of  our 
wage  earners  to  depend  upon  irregular  work  for  a  livelihood 
and  training  them  in  unsteadiness.  In  Chapter  III  we  pointed 
out  non-industrial  and  personal  causes  of  the  instability  of 
workers.  In  Chapter  V  we  will  show  how  better  methods  of 
training  workers  can  increase  the  steadiness  of  their  employ- 
ment and  produce  a  greater  capacity  for  working  steadily.  Our 
discussion  of  the  causes  of  labor  turnover  in  this  chapter  is 
therefore  but  supplementary  to  the  facts  suggested  in  these 
other  four  chapters. 

The  essential  fact,  with  respect  to  labor  turnover,  is  that 
fully  half  of  our  labor  passes  through  our  industries  rather 
than  into  them.  Employers  clamor  for  more  men  while  they 
let  those  they  have  slip  through  their  fingers.  Workers  com- 
plain of  lack  of  work,  though  yesterday  they  made  no  effort 
to  hold  the  jobs  they  had.  "Suddenly  it  is  found  that  one  of 
the  greatest  costs  of  labor  is  not  the  inefficiency  of  the  individual 
but  the  lack  of  good  will  as  a  whole."  ^  A  certain  proportion 
of  our  employers  have  inaugurated  definite  labor  policies  cal- 
culated to  hold  a  steady  labor  force  for  their  businesses  and 
have  achieved  a  success  that  has  surprised  themselves.  Half 
of  our  workers,  more  or  less,  have  fitted  themselves  into  some 
industry  and  become  a  part  of  its  permanent  labor  force.  Why 
does  a  procession  of  workers  pass  through  the  plants  of  the  rest 
of  the  employers?  Why  do  a  large  part  of  the  workers  keep 
step  in  that  procession  instead  of  becoming  a  part  of  some 
specific  business?  Dr.  Sumner  Slichter  -  has  given  us  a  some- 
what thorough  analysis  of  the  causes  of  labor  turnover  in  fac- 
tories.    He  distinguishes  eight  general  causes  for  the  shifting 

'John  R.  Commons  in  "The  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,"  Sumner  Slichter, 
1919,  p.  xiv.  Cf.  also  "Industrial  Good  Will,"  John  R.  Commons,  1919,  for  a 
thorough  study  of  this  conception. 

^  "The  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,"  Part  III.  This  book  is  the  most  thorough 
treatment  of  the  subject  available.  Cf.  also  "The  Problem  of  Labor  Turnover," 
Paul  H.  Douglas,  The  American  Economic  Review,  June,  1918,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  2, 
p.  306. 

I 


114  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

of  labor:  (i)  Reduction  of  the  labor  force  by  the  employer 
on  account  of  reductions  in  output  due  to  industrial  depressions, 
seasonal  fluctuations  of  business,  completion  of  contracts,  and 
other  decreases  in  his  need  for  labor.  (2)  Disagreeable  charac- 
teristics of  the  job,  such  as  low  wages,  irregularity  of  work, 
excessive  hours,  Sunday  work,  lack  of  opportunity  for  advance- 
ment, or  distance  from  the  workman's  home.  (3)  Faulty 
methods  of  handling  men.  (4)  Disagreeable  relations  with 
fellow  workmen  or  quitting  to  leave  with  a  friend.  (5)  Causes 
pertaining  to  the  worker,  such  as  wanderlust,  desire  for  a  change, 
ill-health,  age,  death,  marriage,  or  lack  of  fitness  for  work, 
insubordination,  laziness,  or  mischief  making.  (6)  Attractive 
opportunities  in  other  places  or  other  establishments.  (7)  Dis- 
like for  the  community  in  which  the  work  is  or  of  bad  camp 
conditions,  or  desire  to  go  to  a  particular  community.  And 
(8)  conditions  in  the  family  of  the  worker,  such  as  desire  to 
move  to  another  community  or  locality  for  the  sake  of  the 
family,  or  sickness  in  the  family  that  causes  quitting  of  a  cer- 
tain job.  Add  to  these  the  competitive  recruiting  of  labor  by 
employers,  the  lack  of  an  adequate  public  employment  office 
system,  and  the  migratory  habits  engendered  in  the  American 
people  by  the  industrial  allurements  which  appear  now  here, 
now  there,  in  a  developing  country,  and  we  have  men- 
tioned the  important  causes  of  rapid  turnover  of  labor  in 
America. 

""  The  migratory  habits  just  referred  to  have  probably  received 
less  emphasis  in  this  connection  than  they  are  entitled  to. 
Mechanics,  laborers,  clerks,  salesmen  —  all  sorts  of  workers  — 
are  continually  influenced  by  the  characteristic  American  hope 
that  there  is  a  big  opportunity  somewhere  else  for  them.  The 
very  ambition  which  is  a  spur  to  progress  in  America  is  also  a 
force  which  causes  restlessness  in  the  job  and  leads  to  failure  in 
thousands  of  cases.  The  spirit  of  the  frontier,  which  has  done 
so  much  for  our  development,  has  produced  its  unfortunate 
by-products.  Like  a  will-o'-the-wisp,  it  leads  multitudes  of  our 
people  from  job  to  job  and  place  to  place  until  many  have 
their  feet  entangled  in  a  slough  of  irregular  habits  and  ineffi- 


LABOR  TURNOVER  11$ 

ciency.  There  is  only  one  way  to  become  an  expert,  whether 
at  washing  dishes,  digging  ditches,  or  making  watches  or  battle- 
ships. It  is  by  study  and  practice.  The  man  who  changes 
jobs  frequently  and  drifts  from  industry  to  industry  never  learns 
any  occupation  thoroughly.  But  this  is  not  all.  Irregular 
work  produces  its  results.  First  the  worker  drifts,  and  then 
he  can't  anchor. 

It  is  not  possible  to  estimate  the  cost  of  excessive  turnover 
of  labor  to  the  nation.  We  know  that  the  cost  is  enormous. 
The  employers'  losses  have  been  estimated  at  from  $20  to  $250 
per  extra  man  hired ;  the  exact  figure  depending  upon  the  degree 
of  skill  required  by  the  work,  the  extent  to  which  the  new  man 
slows  down  or  impairs  the  work  of  fellow  workmen,  and  the 
period  of  time  which  elapses  before  the  new  worker  is  able  to 
reach  his  maximum  productivity.  It  takes  the  time  of  execu- 
tives to  interview,  hire,  and  break  in  the  new  employee ;  machin- 
ery and  appliances  are  not  used  to  the  best  advantage  during 
the  learning  period ;  more  materials  are  wasted ;  plant  wear 
and  tear  is  increased ;  more  accidents  occur ;  there  is  loss  of  good 
will  and  business  due  to  mistakes  of  inexperienced  help ;  and 
the  esprit  de  corps  of  the  business  is  lowered  by  the  influx  of 
strangers.  When  the  turnover  is  large  it  is  not  possible  to 
train  the  new  employees  thoroughly,  and  the  average  efficiency 
of  the  whole  force  is  kept  at  a  lower  point. 

The  workers'  losses  are  equally  large.  Their  earning  power 
is  wasted  while  unemployed ;  they  have  to  accept  lower  wages 
when  at  work  because  they  are  not  so  efficient  as  if  steadily 
employed ;  the  skill  they  acquire  on  one  job  is  frequently  value- 
less when  they  take  up  the  next  one ;  their  character  and  work- 
ing ability  are  deteriorated  by  frequent  idleness  and  shifting; 
they  have  greater  accident  exposure ;  they  find  it  increasingly 
difficult  to  obtain  work  after  they  are  forty  years  of  age  ;  and  they 
are  sapped  of  ambition  when  they  are  at  work  by  the  knowledge 
that  they  will  soon  be  discharged. 

The  worker  who  is  subject  to  frequent  changes  of  employ- 
ment is  robbed  of  that  elemental  self-respect  which  is  the  dear 
possession  of  the  man  who  has  an  occupation,  however  humble, 


Ii6  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

in  which  he  sees  himself  performing  some  useful  part  in  the 
world's  work.  The  shifter  is  industrially  homeless;  and  a 
home  —  domestic,  political,  religious,  and  industrial  —  is  one 
of  the  needs  of  human  nature.  A  man  cannot  have  the  proper 
attitude  toward  his  work  or  his  life  who  is  constantly  made  to 
feel  that  no  industry  needs  him. 

The  impairment  of  industry's  efl&ciency  and  the  waste  of 
labor's  efficiency  record  themselves  in  an  increased  cost  of  pro- 
duction. There  are  few  American  commodities  whose  price 
is  not  increased  by  an  extra  labor  cost  due  to  turnover.  The 
employer,  the  worker,  and  the  consumer  all  suffer  heavy  financial 
losses.  And  in  addition  to  that,  society's  burden  of  poverty 
and  misery  is  unnecessarily  increased. 

No  one  knows,  even  approximately,  what  the  total  unneces- 
sary turnover  is  in  American  industry.  A  number  of  investi- 
gators have  given  us  fragmentary  but  extremely  suggestive 
figures  in  specific  groups  of  establishments.  Dr.  Slichter  cites 
one  group  of  105  plants  with  226,038  employees  in  which  225,942 
new  employees  were  hired  in  the  course  of  a  year  —  a  turnover 
of  almost  exactly  one  hundred  per  cent.  One  of  these  plants 
had  a  turnover  of  but  eight  per  cent ;  another  a  turnover  of 
348  per  cent.  Eleven  of  these  plants  hired  more  than  twice 
as  many  employees  in  the  year  as  the  average  number  on  the 
pay  roll ;  but  twenty-one  hired  less  than  one  man  for  each  five 
on  their  annual  payroll.  In  other  words,  the  eleven  hired  more 
than  ten  times  as  many  men  in  proportion  to  their  average  labor 
force  as  the  twenty-one.  Dr.  Slichter's  investigations,  which 
were  perhaps  the  most  exhaustive  of  any  student  of  the  problem, 
led  him  to  the  conclusion  that,  on  the  average,  in  factory  hidustries, 
the  labor  turnover  equals  about  one  hundred  per  cent.  Most 
authorities  agree  that  a  twenty  per  cent  turnover  is  all  that  is 
necessary.  This  average,  however,  conceals  rather  than  illu- 
minates the  situation.  His  detailed  figures  show  that  in  the 
plants  he  studied,  fifteen  or  twenty  per  cent  had  a  low  labor 
turnover,  hiring  one  employee  in  a  year  for  each  four  or  five  on 
the  payroll ;  that  approximately  one  half  put  from  a  little  less 
to  a  little  more  than  twice  as  many  names  on  the  payroll  in  a 


LABOR  TURNOVER  1 17 

year  as  the  average  number  employed ;  and  that  thirty  or  forty 
per  cent  hired  from  two  to  six  times  as  many  as  their  average 
labor  force. 

The  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission  found 
that  seven  New  York  department  stores  in  1913,  which  had  a 
total  average  labor  force  of  26,628  employees,  hired  42,444  new 
employees;  a  turnover  of  approximately  160  per  cent.  One 
firm  with  3750  employees  hired  12,159  during  the  year,  and  a 
second  with  3500  employees  hired  8155.  But  another  with  3497 
employees  hired  only  875. 

Paul  Douglas  has  brought  together  some  of  the  available  fig- 
ures on  turnover  in  specific  groups  of  plants.^  He  shows  that 
W.  A.  Grieves  found  a  turnover  of  157  per  cent  in  twenty 
metal  plants  in  the  middle  west  in  1914;  Magnus  Alexander 
found  a  turnover  of  83  per  cent  in  twelve  plants  in  six  states 
in  1915 ;  Boyd  Fisher  found  a  turnover  of  252  per  cent  in  fifty- 
seven  plants  in  Detroit,  Michigan,  in  1916 ;  the  Ford  Auto- 
mobile Company  had  a  turnover  of  416  per  cent  in  19 12-13, 
which  they  reduced  to  57  per  cent  by  constructive  labor  policies 
later;  a  Philadelphia  concern  had  a  turnover  of  100  per  cent 
in  191 1 ;  the  carding  department  of  a  certain  cotton  mill  had  a 
turnover  of  500  per  cent.  But  these  figures,  startling  as  they  are, 
are  easily  eclipsed.  The  writer  found  a  turnover  of  400  per  cent 
on  a  construction  job  that  lasted  three  years,  and  a  turnover 
running  from  500  to  1000  per  cent  is  not  imcommon  among 
lumber  camps,  and  on  railroad  and  construction  work.  The 
writer  was  recently  informed  by  the  superintendent  of  a  manu- 
facturing establishment  in  Wisconsin  employing  2000  men  that 
they  hired,  on  an  average,  1000  men  a  month,  a  turnover  of 
600  per  cent.  The  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
reports  an  average  turnover  of  224  per  cent  in  twelve  establish- 
ments about  San  Francisco  Bay  during  1917  and  1918.-  One 
can  safely  assert  that  the  average  turnover  in  American  industry 
is  over  100  per  cent. 

The  turnover  for  juvenile  labor  is  especially  high. 

^American  Economic  Reviexv,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  2,  June,  1918,  pp.  308-309. 
^Monthly  Labor  Review,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  2,  February,  1919,  pp.  4S~62. 


Ii8  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

"The  Board  of  Education  of  Rochester,  New  York,  found  that 
boys  between  the  ages  of  fourteen  and  sixteen  changed  their  jobs 
on  the  average  of  every  seventeen  weeks.  This  is  a  turnover  for 
juvenile  labor  of  over  300  per  cent.  The  employment  records  of 
Swift  and  Company  of  Chicago  show  that  the  average  term  of  em- 
ployment for  a  boy  in  their  service  was  only  three  and  a  half  months. 
This  means  that  nearly  three  boys  and  a  half  are  employed  every  year 
for  each  position,  or  to  be  accurate,  that  there  is  a  labor  turnover  of 
342  per  cent.  Figures  from  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  show  that  of  6710 
jobs  held  by  children  leaving  school,  7  per  cent  were  for  less  than  two 
weeks;  15  per  cent  for  less  than  a  month;  30  per  cent  for  less  than 
two  months ;  and  48  per  cent,  or  practically  one  half,  for  less  than 
three  months."  ^ 

These  conclusions  are  corroborated  by  English  investigations. ^ 
The  first  chapter  of  Rowntree  and  Lasker's  "Unemployment" 
is  particularly  valuable  in  its  demonstration  of  the  definite 
relations  between  "blind  alley"  occupations  and  a  habit  of 
shifting  on  the  part  of  juvenile,  and  later  adult,  workers. 

The  reduction  of  abnormal  turnover  of  labor  is  one  of  the 
important  problems  for  which  American  industry,  the  American 
educational  system,  and  an  American  employment  service 
must  develop  definite  and  adequate  policies.  No  one  of  them 
can  accomplish  the  entire  task  alone. 

It  must  be  recognized,  in  the  first  place,  in  any  program  of 
turnover  reduction,  that  the  shifting  of  workers  from  plant  to 
plant  is  characteristic  of  a  fraction  of  the  labor  force,  not  of  the 
entire  labor  force.  The  point  has  already  been  made  that  a 
considerable  percentage  of  the  wage  earners  work  steadily  for 
the  same  employer  or  at  least  at  the  same  occupation  and  in 
the  same  locality;  that  another  large  group  work  as  steadily 
as  the  fluctuating  labor  demand  permits,  and  that  the  high  turn- 
over of  labor  is  localized  in  a  minority  of  the  total  labor  force. 

I  "The  Problem  of  Labor  Turnover,"  Paul  H.  Douglas,  American  Economic 
Review,  June,  1918,  Vol.  VIIL  No.  2,  p.  309;  Final  Rep)ort,  Industrial  Relations 
Commission,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1315-1337. 

'  "The  Prevention  of  Destitution,"  Sidney  Webb,  p.  135.  Cf.  also,  "Unemploy- 
ment in  Lancashire,"  Chapman  and  Hallsworth,  Chap.  V;  "Unemployment,  A 
Social  Study,"  Rowntree  and  Lasker,  Chap.  I. 


LABOR   TURNOVER  I19 

The  problem  which  confronts  us  is  to  develop  policies  that  will 
check  the  frequent  change  of  jobs  by  that  portion  of  the  labor 
force  with  whom  changing  jobs  has  become  or  is  becoming  a 
habit. 

The  task,  as  already  suggested,  is  one  that  requires  coopera- 
tion between  industry,  education,  and  an  organized  labor  mar- 
ket. Industry  holds  the  key  to  success  in  its  hands.  Noth- 
ing that  the  educational  systems  or  an  employment  servdce  can 
do  will  materially  reduce  labor  turnover  if  industry  fails  whole- 
heartedly to  undertake  its  part  of  the  work.  But  American 
industry  is  not  going  to  fail.  Progressive  American  employers 
have  already  inaugurated  new  labor  policies  in  their  establish- 
ments which  have  materially  reduced  their  labor  turnover. 
They  have  demonstrated  what  can  be  done  by  the  employer, 
and  have  contributed  valuable  experience  on  methods.^  They 
have  shown  that  new  methods  of  hiring,  training,  supervising, 
transferring,  and  promoting  labor  will  mitigate  or  eliminate 
many  of  the  industrial  causes  of  turnover.  They  have  dis- 
covered that  a  closer  knowledge  of  the  personal  points  of  view, 
prejudices,  and  problems  of  their  workers  enables  them  to  over- 
come many  factors  personal  to  the  individual  worker  which 
would  have  led  to  irregularity  of  employment. 

Industry's  objectives  must  be  the  selection  of  employees  fitted 
to  the  work  to  be  performed;  the  stabilization  of  production 
to  give  those  workers  the  greatest  possible  steadiness  of  employ- 
ment ;  and  the  creation  of  working  conditions  and  opportunities 
that  will  cause  the  workers  to  want  to  stay  with  the  establish- 
ment when  they  are  employed.  The  writer  ventures  to  suggest 
that  an  essential  element  of  success  in  this  endeavor  must  be 
the  creation  of  opportunities  for  self-advancement.  It  is 
impossible  to  keep  the  energetic  workman  in  an  establishment 
if  there  is  no  hope  of  better  wages  or  better  work  there.  Am- 
bition is  one  of  the  causes  of  labor  turnover.  Not  all  workers 
shift  because  they  lack  the  steadiness  to  remain.  Many  seek 
with  a  new  employer  the  opportunities  which  their  last  employer 

>  Cf.  Chapter  XII  and  references  at  end  of  that  chapter  and  of  this  chapter  for 
further  discussion  and  illustrations. 


I20  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

neglected  to  provide.  This  is  true  of  thousands  of  workmen, 
even  common  laborers,  whom  employers  believe  are  simply 
unsteady.  Only  too  frequently  workmen  see  the  employer  go 
outside  the  establishment  for  the  man  to  fill  the  good  position 
instead  of  seeking  out  some  present  employee  for  promotion.^ 
It  is  not  strange  that  they  conclude  that  changing  employers 
is  the  only  road  to  advancement. 

The  relation  between  industrial  training  and  regularity  of 
employment  ^  was  discussed  in  the  preceding  chapter.  But 
the  contribution  of  an  educational  system  to  turnover  reduction 
cannot  stop  with  industrial  training.  Many  non-industrial 
and  non-economic  motives  play  a  part  in  causing  the  unsteadi- 
ness of  that  group  of  workers  who  shift  most  frequently.  Their 
consumption  standards  are  often  as  deficient  as  their  industrial 
skill.    Thek  sense  of  values  is  warped. 

The  writer  was  on  a  train  and  heard  a  young  soldier  say : 
"Well,  I  hope  when  I  get  home  that  I  can  get  a  good  job." 
He  asked  the  young  man,  "What  is  your  idea  of  a  good  job?" 
"Good  pay  and  easy  work,"  was  the  reply.  This  absence  of  a 
conception  of  service  and  accomplishment  as  a  necessary  char- 
acteristic of  a  "good  job,"  with  the  absence  of  the  desire  to 
give  an  equivalent  in  service  for  the  wage  received,  is  a  common 
defect  in  the  minds  of  those  workers  who  are  found  frequently 
looking  for  a  job.  The  search  for  "easy  money"  is  of  course 
no  more  common  among  wage  earners  than  among  the  people 
of  other  economic  groups.  You  can  find  among  business  and 
professional  men  a  large  number  of  individuals  who  are  con- 
tinually risking  their  money  in  speculative  investments  in  an 
effort  to  get  rich  without  effort.  The  same  point  of  view  appears 
in  the  wage  earner  in  the  form  of  seeking  for  such  "good  jobs" 
as  the  young  man  described.  Just  as  the  speculator  "takes  a 
flyer"  at  this  or  that  investment,  so  this  type  of  wage  earner 
"takes  a  flyer"  at  this  job  and  that.  The  search  for  income 
without  effort,  for  prosperity  without  sacrifice,  for  comfort  without 
earning  it,  is  a  subtle  cause  of  labor  shifting  that  can  be 
reached  only  by  educational  and  home  influences  that  send 

«  Cf.  Chapter  III.  =  Cf.  Chapter  III. 


LABOR  TURNOVER  121 

young  people   into   the   world   with    sound   ideas   and   sound 
valuations. 

The  reduction  of  turnover  can  be  promoted  by  an  efficient 
employment  service  in  many  ways.  It  can  sift  the  individuals 
who  seek  employment  frequently  at  the  exchanges  and  direct 
many  irregular  workers  into  regular  employment.  It  can  dis- 
cover the  causes  of  turnover  in  individual  establishments  and 
localities  and  bring  them  to  the  attention  of  the  employers. 
It  can  carry  on  extensive  observation  and  study  of  the  problem 
in  its  many  phases  and  form  a  center  of  education  on  the  sub- 
ject for  employers,  educators,  the  government,  and  the  workers 
themselves.^ 

'  Cf.  Chapters  IX-XI  for  detailed  discussions. 


CHAPTER  V 

MITIGATION   OF   OCCUPATIONAL   IDLENESS 

What  are  the  possibilities  of  reducing  non-employment  and 
decreasing  labor  turnover?  The  writer  wishes  that  he  could 
answer  the  question  definitely  and  quantitatively.  But  it 
cannot  be  done.  We  do  know,  however,  that  both  the  involun- 
tary and  the  voluntary  idleness  of  workers  can  be  reduced  a  great 
deal.  A  number  of  practical  measures  to  steady  employment 
and  to  reduce  the  total  amount  of  idleness  have  already  been 
tried  or  suggested.^  Many  of  the  methods  which  will  mitigate 
the  evil  are  known.  What  is  needed  now  is  the  early  inaugura- 
tion of  the  policies  which  we  know  are  necessary.  The  object 
of  this  chapter  is  to  stimulate  action  rather  than  to  analyze 
policies.     It  is  now  a  time  for  deeds,  rather  than  words. 

"Unemployment  means  not  only  idle  men;  it  means  idle  capital 
and  sleeping  machinery.     It  means  partially  paralyzed  productivity 

'  Sidney  Webb  and  W.  H.  Beveridge  have  probably  given  the  most  constructive 
suggestions  on  this  subject  of  any  writers  on  employment.  Chapter  VI  of  Webbs' 
"Prevention  of  Destitution"  is  the  most  complete,  concise,  and  constructive  study 
of  means  of  preventing  miemployment  to  be  found.  He  proposes  the  concentration 
of  public  works  in  bad  industrial  years  as  much  as  possible  in  order  to  take  care  of 
the  cyclical  fluctuations  of  employment ;  the  dovetailing  of  occupations  through  the 
public  employment  service  to  take  care  of  the  seasonal  fluctuations ;  and  the  con- 
centration of  the  labor  reserve  under  control  of  the  employment  service;  the 
decasualization  of  the  irregular  employees  by  training,  and  systematic  efficient  train- 
ing of  every  boy  and  girl  so  that  they  do  not  drift  into  casual  work.  Chapters 
VIII-X  of  Beveridge's  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  was  the  first 
important  and  fundamental  treatment  of  the  question. 

Commons  and  Andrews  make  a  valuable  contribution  in  their  "Principles  of 
Labor  Legislation,"  in  Chapter  VI  of  which  they  give  particular  attention  to  Amer- 
ican conditions.  A  particularly  useful  publication  for  the  employer  or  the  employ- 
ment manager  who  seriously  desires  to  develop  constructive  policies  for  the  reduction 
of  unemployment  is  the  bulletin  issued  in  May,  1915,  by  the  American  Association 
for  Labor  Legislation,  131  East  23d  St.,  New  York  City,  entitled,  "A  Practical 
Program  for  the  Prevention  of  Unemployment  in  America,"  American  Labor 
Legislation  Review,  June,  1915. 

122 


MITIGATION  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  1 23 

—  one  of  the  old  luxuries  incident  to  pre-war  democracy  which  the 
Nation  of  to-morrow  will  not  be  able  to  afford.  Will  not  the  State 
undertake  to  prevent  it  where  it  is  preventable?  For  instance,  will 
railroads  be  allowed  to  ignore  the  regularly  recurring  necessities  for 
repairs  to  roadbed  and  equipment  and  to  '  lay  off '  their  labor  in  order 
to  maintain  in  a  time  of  diminished  business  a  fictitious  showing  of 
profits  and  a  regular  dividend  rate  ?  Will  the  doors  of  shoe  and  textile 
manxif acturers  be  shut  for  weeks  at  a  time  because  great  speculators  in 
leather,  wool,  and  cotton  are  disturbing  price  conditions  and  dis- 
abhng  the  manufacturers  from  purchasing  raw  materials ;  or  because 
manufacturers  themselves  prefer  to  delay  production  in  order  to 
effect  a  quick  turnover  of  their  capital  invested  in  materials  and  labor? 
Will  not  the  State's  interest  in  continuous  productivity  here  come  to 
outweigh  the  private  interests  of  the  comparatively  few?  Will  not 
private  speculation  necessarily  give  way  in  the  end  before  public 
compulsory  standardization  ?  In  Great  Britain,  where  more  intensive 
industrialization  has  generally  brought  about  an  earlier  diagnosis  than 
ours  of  labor  problems,  writers  in  the  Labor  Party  upon '  reconstruc- 
tion' problems  after  the  war  have  called  strongly  for  the  'de- 
casualization '  of  industry.  In  America,  organized  labor  has  con- 
tinued up  to  the  present  time  to  accept  the  '  laying  off '  of  men  by  the 
employer  practically  at  will  as  an  inevitable  incident  of  industry. 
Yet  the  wage  question  is  inextricably  bound  up  with  the  question  of 
continuity  in  production. 

"The  wage  is  the  mark  of  the  class  in  industry  which  has  no  regular 
status.  Industrial  tradition  has  it  that  the  individual  worker  has  no 
contract  with  his  employer  and  has  hanging  over  him  continuously 
the  specter  of  discharge  at  the  employer's  convenience;  that  no 
matter  how  satisfactory  his  work  may  be,  the  worker  may  at  any 
moment  without  the  slightest  responsibility  upon  the  part  of  the 
employer  be  exposed  to  the  risks  and  ravages  of  idleness.  The  in- 
security of  labor  —  in  law,  in  tradition,  and  in  practice  —  is  the  out- 
standing fact  in  the  labor  problem  ;  more  than  any  other  fact  it  places 
labor  in  natural  hostility  to  capital  and  to  the  rest  of  the  industrial 
and  civic  world  which  is  aligned  with  capital ;  it  is  the  great  subcon- 
scious element  in  the  labor  problem. 

"Yet  the  employer  has  not  chosen  the  institution  of  the  wage  nor 
of  the  contingent  employment  of  labor.  Age-old  tradition  brought 
it  to  him,  and  he  has  used  it  in  his  competition  according  to  the  rules 
of  the  game  —  the  rule  that  the  man  who  produces  most  cheaply 


124  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

wins.  Even  in  his  resistance  to  wage  increases  the  fear  of  his  com- 
petitors who  may  be  able  to  underbid  him  has  generally  been  his 
chief  motive.  The  bitterest  struggles  of  labor  in  America  are  not 
to  be  laid  to  class  antagonism  but  to  unregulated  industrial  compe- 
tition. The  stabilization  of  employment  and  pay  would  not  be 
strongly  opposed  by  the  employer  if  he  could  be  shown  that  it  will  not 
hurt  him  more  than  the  other  fellow.  Suppose  for  a  moment  that 
the  Government  were  by  statute  to  define  a  list  of  industries  capable 
of  regularization,  were  to  regulate  speculation  in  raw  materials  used 
by  them,  were  to  lay  special  taxes  for  idle  days  in  estabhshments 
within  such  industries,  or  were  to  require  that,  except  by  special 
ruling,  employment  of  labor  in  such  industries  shall,  after  a  certain 
time,  begin  to  be  upon  a  yearly  basis.  The  final  result  of  such  a 
policy  would  be  a  decided  increase  in  the  productivity  of  the  capital 
invested,  in  these  industries;  a  great  improvement  in  the  relation 
between  employer  and  employee;  and  a  scientific  standardization 
of  production  based  upon  reckonable  demand  and  supply  over  long 
periods  of  time,  beyond  what  the  public  would  have  thought  of  as 
conceivable.  And  on  the  whole  the  manufacturing  class  would  find 
it  in  the  end  a  blessing.  Many  kinds  of  industry  and  a  certain  pro- 
portion of  every  occupation  would  always  remain  upon  a  casual  or 
seasonal  basis ;  but  even  in  these  the  conditions  of  production  would 
be  improved  by  the  stabilization  attained  elsewhere,  and  labor  would 
receive  higher  pay  on  account  of  the  greater  element  of  risk.  At 
the  same  time,  labor  exchanges  operated  by  the  State  or  by  labor 
unions  could  effect  transitions  with  minimum  losses  through  idle- 
ness." ^ 

I.   Stabilization  of  Production 

The  individual  employer  can  do  much  to  stabilize  employ- 
ment, if  he  will  study  ways  and  means  for  making  his  demand 
for  labor  more  uniform  throughout  the  year.-  The  individual 
employer  has  hitherto  believed  that  he  was  in  the  grip  of  eco- 

^  Louis  B.  Wehle,  in  "American  Problems  of  Reconstruction,"  edited  by  Elisha 
M.  Friedman,  pp.  173-175- 

*  See,  for  illustrations,  articles  in  Annals  of  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science,  May,  1916.  Cf.  also,  "What  the  Awakened  Employer  Is  Thinking 
on  Unemployment,"  Robert  G.  Valentine,  American  Labor  Legislation  Review, 
June,  igis;  "Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,"  Sumner  Slichter;  "The  Regulation  of 
Employment  by  Employers,"  J.  H.  Willits,  in  Report  of  the  Ontario  Commission  on 
Unemployment,  pp.  3i-37- 


MITIGATION  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  125 

nomic  forces  which  compelled  him  to  carry  on  his  business  in  a 
highly  seasonal  or  irregular  manner,  with  frequent  changes  in 
the  number  of  persons  he  employed.  In  a  large  percentage  of 
cases,  he  was  mistaken.  Those  employers  who  have  adopted 
definite  policies  for  stabilizing  production  m  order  to  stabilize 
employment  have  found  that  they  could  regulate  the  volume 
of  their  business  from  month  to  month  to  a  much  greater  extent 
than  they  had  believed  possible.  They  have  found  that  they 
could  smooth  the  curve  of  production,  eliminating  the  sharp 
fluctuation  from  rush  to  dull  periods  and  producing  a  more 
equal  demand  for  labor  throughout  the  year.  They  have 
increased  the  annual  wages  and  standard  of  living  of  their 
employees,  obtained  a  steadier  and  more  efficient  labor  force, 
and  reduced  their  cost  of  production  per  unit  of  output.^ 

It  is  only  recently  that  American  employers  have  begun  to 
appreciate  the  fact  that  the  establishment  of  good  employment 
conditions  in  their  business  is  one  of  the  essential  functions  of 
management.  Labor  has  been,  to  most  employers,  but  one  of 
the  raw  materials  of  production  —  a  particularly  obstreperous 
and  uncertain  raw  material.  Some  of  them  are  now  beginning 
to  see  that  labor  is  an  integral  part  of  the  enterprise  itself ;  like 
machinery,  land,  or  buildings,  rather  than  a  commodity  pur- 
chased for  use  in  the  industry.  This  realization  forces  upon  the 
employers'  attention  the  vital  necessity  of  thinking  out  the 
problems  connected  with  the  maintenance  of  a  steady  labor  force, 
loyal  to  the  establishment. 

The  up-to-date  employer  cannot  think  of  his  labor  as  a 
"problem."  He  must  recognize  it  as  an  integral  part  of  his 
business.-  Instead  of  thinking  of  his  labor  problem,  he  will 
begin  to  recognize  his  laborers'  problems.     Their  life  and  live- 

'  See,  for  illustrations,  articles  in  Annals  of  American  Academy  of  Political  and 
Social  Science,  May,  1916.  Cf.  also,  "What  the  Awakened  Employer  is  Thinking 
on  Unemployment,"  Robert  G.  Valentine,  American  Labor  Legislation  Reviru), 
June,  1915  ;  "Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,"  Sumner  Slichter;  "The  Regulation  of 
Employment  by  Employers,"  J.  H.  Willits,  in  Report  of  the  Ontario  Commission  on 
Unemployment,  pp.  31-37. 

2  The  workers'  point  of  view  is  at  least  partly  stated  by  John  F.  Tobin,  in  "The 
Workers  and  Unemployment,"  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  1915, 
p.  429. 


126  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

lihood  and  that  of  their  wives  and  children  are  to  a  large  extent 
determined  by  conditions  of  employment  which  he  throws 
around  the  wage  earner ;  and  it  is  as  much  a  part  of  his  man- 
agerial duty  to  concern  himself  with  his  workers'  problems  as 
it  is  with  his  customers'  problems.  A  larger  measure  of  democ- 
racy in  industry  is  certain  to  develop  in  the  next  decade,  and 
represents  the  only  means  by  which  those  causes  of  labor  turn- 
over found  in  the  worker's  attitude  to  his  employment  can  be 
effectively  dealt  with. 

There  are  several  methods  by  which  American  employers 
have  found  themselves  able  to  stabilize  employment  for  their 
workers.  In  the  first  place,  study  of  their  individual  business 
has  revealed  to  individual  employers  that  their  businesses  have 
been  more  seasonal  than  they  needed  to  be.  They  had  been 
accustomed  to  alternating  a  rush  period  with  a  dull  one  and 
had  made  little  effort  to  spread  the  work  uniformly.  They 
found  upon  study  of  the  business  that  there  were  marked 
possibilities  of  decreasing  the  alternation  of  employment  and 
unemployment. 

We  recognize,  of  course,  that  there  are  strong  incentives  to 
the  concentration  of  production  in  rush  seasons  rather  than  to 
its  distribution  through  the  year.  Customers  hold  back  their 
orders  as  long  as  possible  while  they  gauge  their  prospective 
sales.  Producers  refrain  from  production  to  the  last  possible 
moment  in  order  to  keep  down  their  interest  charges.  Speciali- 
zation on  particular  products  naturally  tends  to  extreme  activity 
during  months  when  these  products  are  being  made  or  grown, 
and  a  dull  time  during  the  intervening  months.  Stocks  accu- 
mulated and  stored  create  additional  fire  risks,  insurance,  and 
handling  costs.  But  these  incentives  to  concentration  can  be 
overbalanced  by  the  gains  obtained  from  policies  of  em- 
ployment stabilization. 

Different  concerns  will  of  course  find  it  necessary  to  adopt 
different  policies  in  order  to  accomplish  the  desired  end.     In 
some  cases  employment  can  be  made  more  uniform  through-  ■ 
out  the  year  by  producing  certain  products  at  one  time  in  the 
year  and  other  products  at  other  seasons;   or  certain  quahties 


MITIGATION  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS      •     127 

or  types  of  a  product  at  one  season  and  other  qualities  or  types 
at  another.  The  management  should  study  out  sidelines  which 
are  good  during  the  dull  season  of  the  main  product ;  or  cultivate 
a  staple  line  which  can  be  made  during  the  whole  year,  and  upon 
which  most  of  the  force  can  be  used  in  seasons  when  other  lines 
are  dull. 

Stabilizing  of  employment  both  in  agriculture  ^  and  in  manu- 
factures depends  to  a  large  extent  upon  producing  a  variety  of 
products.  It  is  single-crop  agriculture  in  which  the  demand 
for  labor  is  most  highly  seasonal.  The  same  is  true  in  "single- 
crop"  manufacturing.  Many  establishments  with  elaborate 
and  expensive  machinery  are  centered  on  one  or  two  products 
and  using  their  plants  only  a  part  of  the  year  when  they  could 
just  as  well  produce  other  products  and  utilize  their  plant  and 
labor  force  practically  the  entire  year. 

In  other  cases,  a  closer  cooperation  between  the  sales  department 
and  the  production  departments  is  what  is  needed.  A  leading 
American  employer  recently  said  that  the  selling  department 
runs  most  concerns.  The  salesmen  make  promises  and  the 
production  departments  have  to  fill  them.  The  salesman 
humors  the  demands  of  customers.  He  knowingly  seeks  orders 
which  will  overburden  departments  already  rushed  rather  than 
orders  which  will  take  up  the  slack  in  departments  that  are  dull. 
He  makes  promises  on  rush  orders  that  compel  excessive  speed- 
ing and  overtime  instead  of  persuading  customers  to  wait  a 
few  days  longer.  He  embarrasses  production,  and  compels 
the  production  department  to  adjust  its  work  to  his  sales.  The 
salesman  seeks  orders.  He  knows  little  about  the  effects  of  his 
methods  upon  the  inner  workings  of  the  production  departments, 
and  does  not  know  how  to  plan  his  work  to  steady  theirs.  The 
defect  here  is  clearly  a  defect  in  the  organization  of  the  business. 
The  management  should  make  the  sales  and  production  depart- 
ments understand  each  other's  problems  and  give  both  an  oppor- 
tunity to  help  mold  the  company's  market  policies.  Then  the 
management  should  establish  absolute  rules  controlling   the 

'  Cf.  Chapter  XIV  on  "Farm  Labor,"  where  this  topic  receives  extended  dis- 
cussion. 


128  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

promises  which  salesmen  may  make  to  customers;  and  make 
them  rely  on  the  cjuality  of  goods,  prices,  and  the  perfect  ful- 
fillment of  agreements,  to  get  orders,  instead  of  the  humoring 
of  customers.  If  the  management  will  study  the  diversifica- 
tion of  products  so  that  the  selling  department  can  obtain  orders 
to  keep  the  production  department  busy  through  the  year, 
and  if  the  management  will  definitely  educate  the  customers 
upon  the  way  in  which  seasonal  concentration  has  affected  the 
employment  of  their  workmen,  it  will  be  possible  for  a  great 
majority  of  concerns  to  materially  stabilize  employment  through 
directed  selling. 

Faulty  organization  within  the  production  departments  is  another 
defect  in  industry  that  increases  the  workman's  uncertainties. 
Many  concerns  do  not  have  the  interrelations  of  their  several 
departments  properly  worked  out.  Foremen  discharge  men 
only  a  few  hours  before  they  are  notified  that  additional  men 
are  needed  to  take  care  of  orders  on  hand.  Transfers  of  men 
from  departments  that  are  slack  to  those  that  are  busy  are  too 
uncommon.  One  department  in  an  establishment  lets  out  men 
of  a  certain  grade  at  the  very  time  when  another  is  going  out 
to  hire  men  of  that  grade,  and  neither  knows  what  is  taking 
place  in  the  other  department.  Private  employers  have  not 
been  derelict  in  pointing  out  inefficiencies  in  public  business 
offices,  but  one  who  impartially  observes  the  labor  policies,  if 
they  can  be  called  policies,  which  obtain  in  a  large  portion  of 
our  private  businesses  will  be  incHned  to  make  some  remark 
about  people  who  live  in  glass  houses.  The  solution  for  this 
difficulty  is  found  in  the  estabhshment  of  a  central  employment 
department  which  hires  and  discharges  all  workers  for  the 
establishment.^ 

Another  common  fault  within  industries  from  the  employ- 
ment point  of  view  is  the  ignorance  of  foremen  and  subordinate 
executives  with  respect  to  the  volume  of  orders  ahead.  If  foremen 
knew  how  much  or  how  little  work  was  in  prospect,  they  could 
plan  their  work  and  their  employment  of  men  with  some  intelli- 
gence. But  being  as  ignorant  of  the  work  ahead  as  the  work- 
*  See  Chapter  XII  for  further  discussion  and  references  on  this  matter. 


MITIGATION  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  1 29 

men  themselves,  they  have  to  determine  each  day's  pohcy  by 
each  day's  needs. 

The  faulty  methods  of  hiring  and  discharging  described  in  the 
preceding  chapter  increase  the  uncertainty  of  employment  of 
all  workers  in  the  establishment.  In  most  factories,  and  in 
many  contracting,  mercantile,  and  other  kinds  of  enterprises 
each  foreman  "hires  and  fires"  the  men  of  his  gang.  He  has 
arbitrary  power  of  selection  and  of  discharge.  He  varies  his 
labor  force  with  changes  in  the  volume  of  work  in  his  depart- 
ment. Ordinarily,  he  uses  little  care  in  selecting  men  because 
he  can  discharge  them  without  notice  if  they  do  not  please  him. 
His  arbitrary  power  of  discharge  he  likewise  uses  for  discipline. 
As  a  result,  a  large  part  of  the  labor  force  is  in  a  continual 
state  of  rotation.  The  concern  which  does  its  hiring  through 
a  specialized  employment  department  can  reduce  its  labor 
costs.  It  can  afford  to  do  more  dull  season  work  and  thereby 
give  each  of  its  workmen  a  better  livelihood. 

Overtime  aggravates  this  evil.  If  employers  never  worked 
overtime,  work  would  have  to  be  spread  more  evenly  through 
the  year.  Overtime  is  most  common  in  those  industries  which 
are  otherwise  irregular.  It  is  characteristic  of  seasonal  and 
irregular  industries  rather  than  of  those  which  work  steadily 
through  the  year.  It  is  more  common  as  a  means  of  filling 
seasonal  orders  than  of  filling  intermittent  rush  orders  obtained 
by  concerns  which  otherwise  work  regularly.  It  is  in  such 
businesses  as  the  garment  trades,  bag,  tin  can,  and  paper  box 
factories,  candy  factories  and  calendar  factories,  where  you 
find  overtime  most  frequent,  rather  than  relatively  steady 
industries  such  as  flour  mills,  machine  shops,  or  cigar  fac- 
tories. 

The  remedy  for  the  overtime  evil  is  clear.  It  must  be  abol- 
ished. Either  employers  must  do  away  with  it,  or  the  state 
must  forbid  it.  Some  of  the  concentration  of  production  in 
rush  seasons  can  be  distributed  over  the  dull  seasons  by  com- 
pulsory limitation  of  each  day's  work.  Progressive  employers 
are  finding  that  overtime  docs  not  pay,  and  many  of  them  protest 
against  competitive  methods  which  force  overtime  upon  tliem. 

K 


I30  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Those  who  cannot  see  the  fact  should  be  forced  to  adhere  to  a 
normal  day's  work.^ 

The  diversification  of  industry,  managerial  poUcies  calculated 
to  spread  work  uniformly  through  the  year,  and  the  reduction 
of  overtime  to  an  absolute  minimum,  are  the  particular  contribu- 
tion which  the  employer  himself  can  make  to  the  reduction 
of  unemployment.  They  constitute  the  most  important  means 
available  for  cutting  down  this  worst  evil  which  the  working 
people  have  to  face.  The  employer  has  an  opportunity  of  social 
service  of  the  first  importance.  Incidentally,  these  policies  will 
increase  his  profits  in  the  long  run. 

2.   Dovetailing  of  Establishment  Demands 

The  dovetailing  of  employments  and  the  systematic  replace- 
ment of  men  necessarily  let  out  by  employers  is  the  second  means 
of  reducing  unemployment.  This  is  a  function  which  must 
be  performed  partly  by  employers  and  partly  by  a  well-organized 
pubUc  employment  service.^  In  other  words,  it  involves  public- 
private  cooperation. 

The  central  ofl&ce  of  the  public  employment  service  in  each 
city  can  establish  a  system  whereby  each  employer  will  notify 
the  employment  ofiice  of  his  intention  to  lay  off  workmen, 
of  the  number  who  are  to  be  thrown  out  of  work,  and  of  their 
occupations.  The  office  can  thereupon  call  the  attention  of 
other  employers  in  that  community  who  are  using  that  class 
of  labor  to  the  fact  that  a  given  number  of  men  will  be  available 
on  a  certain  day.  The  objection  which  employers  have  made 
to  the  use  of  public  employment  offices  in  the  past  has  been 
that  the  quality  of  men  who  patronized  the  offices  was  not  the 
quality  they  wanted  in  their  establishments.     But  an  employ- 

1  The  author  was  for  nine  years  a  member  of  the  Department  of  Labor  of  the 
State  of  Minnesota.  In  practically  every  one  of  those  nine  years  the  employers 
operating  certain  bag,  can,  and  candy  factories  came  to  the  commissioner  of  labor 
to  plead  for  his  connivance  in  a  violation  of  the  laws  regulating  the  hours  of  labor 
of  women  so  that  they  could  work  overtime  during  their  rush  seasons.  His  refusal 
compelled  them  to  get  their  orders  earlier  and  spread  production  over  a  longer 
period. 

*  See  detailed  discussion  of  such  service  in  Chapters  VXII-IX. 


MITIGATION  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  13 1 

ment  office  which  thus  systematically  transferred  men  from 
one  industrial  establishment  to  another  in  the  community  ac- 
cording to  the  changing  demands  for  men  in  the  different  indus- 
tries, would  be  able  to  furnish  employers  with  steady,  reliable 
workmen.  But  the  employment  office  could  go  farther  than 
this.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years  it  could  make  records  which 
would  show  that  about  the  first  of  May,  Brown  and  Company 
usually  reduced  their  force  and  let  out  machinists,  press  hands, 
and  certain  other  classes  of  workmen.  The  record  of  appli- 
cations for  men  should  show  that  about  the  first  of  May,  Griggs 
and  Company  were  hiring  certain  of  these  types  of  men,  while 
some  other  concern  was  hiring  other  types.  In  the  middle  of 
April  the  employment  office  would  address  an  inquiry  to  Brown 
and  Company  asking  whether  men  would  be  let  out  as  usual  this 
year,  the  approximate  number  and  occupations  of  such  men  and 
the  wages  they  had  been  earning.  At  the  same  time,  it  would 
address  inquiries  to  the  employers  who  increase  their  force 
about  the  first  of  May,  asking  how  many  men  they  would  need, 
what  kind  of  men,  and  what  they  would  pay.  Before  any  of 
these  men  were  actually  out  of  employment  this  employment 
office  would  have  prepared  to  re-place  in  another  establishment 
the  majority  of  the  men  let  out.  It  would  be  expecting  too 
much  to  assume  that  the  office  could  place  every  one  of  these 
men  as  soon  as  he  lost  his  employment.  That  would  happen 
sometimes.  But  it  could  frequently  place  a  large  percentage 
of  them.  It  would  prevent  them  from  losing  time  while  shift- 
ing to  a  new  employment.  It  would  give  the  nation  and  the 
nation's  industries  the  benefit  of  their  continuous  labor  through 
the  year.  Such  a  plan  carefully  worked  out  and  operated  sys- 
tematically throughout  the  year  in  all  of  the  larger  cities  of  the 
United  States  would  reduce  idleness  of  American  workers  by 
millions  of  days  each  year.  It  would  involve  considerable 
work  during  the  early  years  of  its  estabUshment  but  in  five  or 
six  years  the  system  would  be  accompUshing  its  results  with 
a  minimum  of  effort.  The  cost  involved  would  be  insignificant 
compared  with  the  addition  that  it  would  make  to  the  annual 
wages  of  American  workers  and  the  annual  output  of  American 


132  .  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

industry.  It  would  even  be  possible  in  many  individual  cases 
for  the  employment  office  to  make  arrangements  whereby 
a  given  workman  would  work  for  six  or  eight  months  of  the 
year  for  one  employer  and  for  the  balance  of  the  year  with 
another  employer. 

There  is  no  doubt  but  the  employment  offices  in  the  smaller 
cities  could  work  out  this  plan  even  more  rapidly  and  efficiently 
than  those  in  the  larger  cities  and  that  in  the  course  of  time  a 
large  percentage  of  the  workers  of  America  could  be  insured 
of  a  maximum  amount  of  employment.^ 

3.   Conservation  of  Labor  Efficiency 

The  dovetaiHng  of  jobs  which  has  just  been  discussed  would 
materially  conserve  the  efficiency  of  our  workers  by  eliminating 
the  worry  and  waste  of  time  incident  to  our  past  method  of 
throwing  them  out  of  employment  with  utter  disregard  for 
their  future,  and  by  improving  their  standard  of  living.  It 
will  strengthen  their  confidence  both  in  our  government  and  in 
our  economic  system. 

But  we  should  not  let  the  question  of  conserving  working 
efficiency  rest  at  that  point.  Any  constructive  program  for 
reducing  unemployment  must  take  cognizance  of  the  fact  that 
the  inefficiency  and  irregularity  of  workers  increases  their 
liability  to  unemployment,  and  must  develop  plans  to  train 
them  for  efficiency. 

There  are  three  measures  which  Mr.  Webb  has  pointed  out 
that  are  essential  elements  in  any  adequate  program :  a 
nation-wide  system  of  continuation  schools,  the  adequate  relief 
of  widows  and  others  whose  children  are  now  denied  education 
and  opportunity  for  development  -  by  the  poverty  of  their 
parents,  and  the  prevention  or  adequate  regulation  of  child 
employment  in  "  blind  alley  "  occupations. 

The  minor  under  eighteen  years  of  age  who  is  employed 
should  be  required  to  attend  school  for  a  certain  portion  of 

1  For  other  discussions  of  dovetailing  see  index. 

-  The  questions  of  apprenticeship  and  vocational  guidance  are  discussed  in 
Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations  Commission,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1328-1337,  1801-1903. 


MITIGATION  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  133 

each  week  and  special  schools  for  this  purpose  should  be  pro- 
vided in  every  state  in  the  union.  Our  federal  government 
has  already  taken  steps  to  promote  such  education  by  the  pas- 
sage of  the  law  of  February  23,  191 7,  which  created  the  Federal 
Board  of  Vocational  Education  "with  the  duty  of  disbursing 
Federal  moneys  to  the  states  for  approved  institutions  in  trade 
and  industrial  Hues  of  less  than  college  grade,  and  of  promoting, 
in  cooperation  with  the  states  the  establishment  of  such  institu- 
tions." Wisconsin  and  some  of  the  other  states  have  already 
established  vocational  schools  in  cooperation  with  the  federal 
authorities,  where  working  children  must  attend  school  a  portion 
of  each  week.  In  Wisconsin  every  child  from  fourteen  to  seven- 
teen years  of  age  who  is  employed  must  be  permitted  by  his 
employer  to  attend  the  vocational  school  at  least  eight  hours 
each  week  if  such  a  school  e.xists  in  his  locality,  and  these  eight 
hours  are  counted  in  the  total  number  of  hours  which  the  child 
is  permitted  by  law  to  be  employed.  All  minors  of  fourteen  to 
seventeen  years  of  age  who  reside  in  a  town  where  there  is  a 
vocational  school  are  required  to  attend  such  school  eight  hours 
a  week,  whether  employed  or  not,  if  they  are  not  in  attendance 
at  some  other  school.  The  only  exception  is  in  the  case  of 
regularly  indentured  apprentices.^ 

It  is  both  an  injustice  and  a  folly  for  the  nation  to  deny  chil- 
dren an  opportunity  because  their  parents  are  poor.  The 
poverty  of  parents  has  been  one  of  the  reasons  in  most  states 
why  children  may  leave  school  and  go  to  work.  This  policy 
is  exactly  wrong.  If  the  parents  are  in  poverty,  if  the  child 
has  inadequate  food  and  clothes,  if  he  Uves  in  a  crowded  dwell- 
ing, if  his  parents  are  unable  to  give  him  the  proper  care,  that 
is  exactly  the  reason  why  that  child  should  have  more  education  than 
other  children.  Society  has  in  the  past  visited  the  incompetence 
and  misfortune  of  the  parents  upon  the  children,  often  genera- 

1  Cf.  Bulletins  No.  i  and  No.  17,  Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Education, 
Washington,  D.  C. ;  Bulletin  No.  i,  Wisconsin  State  Board  of  Vocational  Education, 
Madison,  Wisconsin  ;  "  Labor  and  Administration,"  John  R.  Commons,  Chap.  XX; 
"Development  of  Apprenticeship,"  Stewart  Scrimshaw  in  The  Wisconsin  Apprentice, 
Vol.  II,  No.  II,  March  15,  1919.  Issued  by  Industrial  Commission  of  Wisconsin, 
Madison,  Wisconsin. 


134  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

tion  after  generation.  We  have  permitted  poverty  to  be  cumu- 
lative, and  in  one  sense  of  the  word,  hereditary ;  instead  of 
breaking  the  line  of  causation  and  setting  the  child  free  from  the 
shackles  that  have  bound  the  parents.'  Where  families  need 
charitable  assistance  we  should  give  enough  aid  to  enable  them 
to  get  the  necessities  of  life  and  should  make  it  a  condition  and 
part  of  such  relief  that  their  children  receive  the  food,  clothes, 
medical  care,  education,  and  vocational  guidance  that  will 
enable  them  to  escape  from  the  conditions  of  their  parents  and 
become  self-supporting. 

We  have  previously  referred  to  the  well-recognized  "blind 
alley  "  occupations.^  An  effective  public  employment  service 
and  the  vocational  education  departments  which  are  developing 
in  our  public  schools  should  cooperate  to  sift  out  these  occupa- 
tions in  which  child  workers  have  no  opportunity  of  passing 
naturally  into  an  adult  occupation.  Either  state  labor  com- 
missions or  legislation  should  be  utilized,  to  prohibit  the  em- 
ployment of  children  in  such  occupations,  or  insure  such  train- 
ing and  guidance  of  such  children  as  will  prepare  them  to  earn 
an  adequate  livelihood  in  their  maturity.  There  are  plenty 
of  men  and  women  in  our  labor  supply  who  would  be  glad  to 

1  One  typical  case  which  was  xmder  the  author's  observation  for  nearly  ten  years 
illustrates  the  point.  A  man  fifty-four  years  old  married  a  woman  of  thirty.  He 
had  been  a  plasterer.  Sickness  and  other  reasons  had  caused  him  to  let  his  union 
dues  lapse.  He  therefore  turned  to  labor.  His  age  and  an  accident  to  his  ankle 
made  him  one  of  those  inefficients  who  could  not  hold  a  job  steadily.  He  was  willing 
to  work  and  did  work  when  he  could  get  employment.  Certain  employers  hired  him 
when  they  were  taking  on  irregular  help.  He  did  not  drink.  He  was  a  steady  family 
man.  He  was  faithful,  but  underemployed.  Four  children  were  bom,  the  last 
when  he  was  sixty-four  years  old.  The  family  had  to  resort  to  charity  from  time  to 
time  after  the  birth  of  the  first  child  in  1908.  They  lived  in  the  poorest  quarter  of 
the  city,  but  they  had  the  cleanest  home  in  the  neighborhood.  Sometimes  they  had 
food  and  sometimes  they  did  not.  The  reader  may  say  anything  he  desires  about 
the  improvidence  of  parents  who  would  continue  to  bear  children  under  such  con- 
ditions. The  author  will  not  disagree  with  him.  But  what  about  the  children? 
Must  they  be  cursed  by  their  parents'  improvidence?  Must  they  grow  up  as  four 
more  inefficients  —  to  produce  another  and  still  larger  spawn  of  inefficients?  Must 
they,  too,  constitute  part  of  the  underemployed  labor  reserve?  Must  they  help 
make  that  "casual  fringe"  of  unemployed  for  some  industry?  Or  does  sound  social 
policy  dictate  that  society  intervene  with  a  strong  enough  hand  to  fit  those  children 
for  self-support,  self-respect,  and  social  value? 

» Cf.  Chapter  III. 


MITIGATION  OF   OCCUPATIONAL   IDLENESS  135 

obtain  such  employment,  and  one  may  seriously  inquire  whether 
"blind  alley  "  occupations  should  not  be  reserved  to  those  for 
whom  the  future  can  in  the  nature  of  the  case  hold  no  advance- 
ment. One  thing  is  certain,  every  child,  no  matter  how  poor 
his  parents  are,  should  be  protected  against  drifting  into  occu- 
pations which  lead  naturally  to  casual  or  low-grade  employ- 
ment in  adult  years,  and  insured  an  education  and  an  industrial 
experience  which  will  fit  him  for  earning  a  decent  livelihood. 
Vocational  guidance  of  children  is  an  essential  part  of  the  na- 
tion's employment  program,  and  must  be  definitely  worked  out 
in  cooperation  by  the  employment  service  and  the  schools.' 

The  successful  inauguration  of  the  dovetailing  of  occupations 
and  the  guaranteeing  of  children  a  proper  start  in  life  require 
action  by  the  community.^  The  federal  employment  service, 
in  order  to  attain  adequate  efficiency  in  this  work,  must  per- 
manently cooperate  with  and  be  influenced  by  the  people  of 
each  local  community  in  dealing  with  these  problems.  The 
state  and  municipal  governments,  and  those  interested  in  the 
welfare  of  the  workers  in  each  community,  must  assume  the 
main  responsibility  for  this  part  of  the  work  of  reducing  unem- 
ployment. 

4.  Training  of  Adults 

The  training  of  adults  to  make  them  more  efficient  workmen 
is  another  important  part  of  an  adequate  employment  program. 

We  have  already  suggested  this  in  the  case  of  adults  who 
are  employed  and  have  pointed  out  that  this  means  for  most 
wage  earners  that  the  training  must  be  given  by  the  employer 
as  a  regular  part  of  his  labor  management.^  Mr.  Sidney  Webb 
has  suggested  that  training  also  be  given  by  public  authority 
(and  possibly  under  public  compulsion)  during  periods  of  idle- 
ness.'' His  presentation  of  the  need  for  a  system  of  public 
education  for  the  unemployed  is  worthy  of  serious  consideration 
by  the  United  States.     He  proposes  that  unemployed  laborers, 

•  Cf.  Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations  Commission,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1328-1337. 

•  Cf .  pages  79  ff.  » Cf .  pages  79  ff. 

•  "Prevention  of  Destitution,"  pp.  141-149. 


136  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

registered  at  the  public  labor  exchange,  for  whom  no  work 
can  be  found,  be  permitted  to  draw  their  unemployment  in- 
surance only  on  condition  of  "their  submitting  themselves  to 
such  training  —  physical  and  mental,  general  and  technologi- 
cal —  as  may  be  found  appropriate  to  their  needs."  "If  there 
are  really  no  vacancies  for  such  men,  .  .  .  seeing  that  such 
men  (like  the  rest  of  us)  are  always  physically  'out  of  condition ' ; 
that,  although  sometimes  possessed  of  a  skill  which  has  become 
valueless,  they  are  usually  quite  inadequately  educated  and 
trained ;  that  many  of  them  are  suffering  from  hardship  and 
exposure,  if  not  from  bad  habits;  .  .  .  the  most  valuable  use 
to  which  the  community  can  put  their  necessarily  unemployed 
time  is  to  make  it  in  the  highest  sense  productive  by  spending 
it  in  their  own  training."  The  .  .  .  "Labour  Exchanges 
that  have  been  opened  throughout  the  country  have  had  brought 
to  them  the  paramount  and  pressing  need  for  supplying  train- 
ing to  the  Unemployed.  Every  manager  of  a  Labour  Exchange 
has  had  repeated  experience  of  having  opportunities  for  getting 
men  and  women  into  good  and  steady  wage  earning  employ- 
ment which  he  cannot  embrace  .  .  .  because  he  can  find  no 
qualified  person  disengaged.  On  the  other  hand,  every  manager 
also  has  the  melancholy  experience  of  seeing  a  crowd  of  men 
on  his  books,  often  men  of  good  conduct  and  unimpeached 
character,  who,  because  of  their  inability  to  do  any  work  for 
which  there  is  a  demand,  remain,  in  a  time  of  good  trade,  month 
after  month  unemployed  —  too  many  of  them  degenerating 
steadily  under  his  eyes,  from  idleness,  hopelessness,  and  insuffi- 
cient food,  for  sheer  lack  of  the  discipline  and  regular  life  that 
training  would  afford. 

"What  is  proposed  is  that  there  should  gradually  be  opened, 
under  the  Ministry  of  Labour,  and  in  close  association  with 
the  Labour  Exchanges  ...  a  number  of  small  Training  Estab- 
lishments, under  carefully  chosen  instructors,  at  one  or  other 
of  which  any  man  or  woman,  for  whom  the  Labour  Exchange 
could  find  no  situation,  should  willingly  (but  entirely  option- 
ally) be  enrolled.  .  .  .  These  Training  Establishments  .  .  . 
should  be  both  town  and  country  .  .  .  they  should  be  run 


MITIGATION  OF  OCCUPATIONAL  IDLENESS  137 

exclusively  as  places  of  training,  with  a  single  eye  to  the  improve- 
ment of  their  inmates,  without  the  least  pretense  of  making 
their  labour  productive,  and  without,  indeed,  producing  any- 
thing for  sale  or  use  outside  the  institution  itself.  .  ,  .  The 
men  should  be  required  to  attend  every  morning  at  6  a.m.  and 
to  remain  for  at  least  the  full  working  day,  with  suitable  inter- 
vals for  rest  and  meals." 

The  details  of  Mr.  Webb's  plans  are  as  interesting  as  his 
general  conception.  Physical  examination,  followed  by  medical 
treatment  and  physical  training,  the  development  of  "imper- 
fect painters,  carpenters,  bricklayers,"  and  other  mechanics 
"into  more  competent  craftsmen,"  the  guidance  of  those  in 
decaying  trades  into  developing  occupations,  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  manual  efi&ciency  of  laborers  are  some  of  the  objec- 
tives sought. 

Mr.  Webb,  of  course,  recognizes  that  training  alone  will 
not  eliminate  unemployment,  but,  he  says,  "It  is  demonstrably 
better  for  the  community  to  have,  as  its  citizens,  strong,  dis- 
ciplined, and  trained  men  than  half-starved  and  physically 
incompetent  weaklings,  unable  to  use  either  hands  or  brain 
to  any  practical  advantage,  with  irregular  habits  and  uncon- 
trolled will  —  and  all  the  more  so  if  they  are  liable  to  be  periodi- 
cally unemployed.  .  .  .  Idleness  is  demoralizing ;  .  .  ,  but  phys- 
ical and  mental  training  in  companionship  is  invigorating  and 
hopeful;  the  regular  hours  and  continuous  occupation  under 
discipline  are  exactly  what  is  required;  and  the  obvious  im- 
provement in  physical  efficiency  has,  in  itself,  a  bracing  effect 
on  character." 

This  idea  of  training  the  worker  while  unemployed  has  not 
been  advanced  by  Mr.  Webb  alone,  and  its  complementary 
idea  —  training  while  in  employment  —  has  already  received 
serious  attention  and  some  development  in  the  United  States 
as  well  as  in  foreign  countries.  There  is  probably  no  aspect 
of  labor  efficiency  which  has  received  more  stimulus  from  the 
war.^     Those  concerns  which,  in  recent  years,  have  introduced 

'  Cf.  "Training  Labor:  A  Necessary  Reconstruction  Policy,"  C.  T.  Clayton,  in 
The  Annals,  January,  1919,  p.  137. 


138  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

a  constructive  policy  of  labor  management  in  their  establish- 
ments and  have  studied  the  causes  of  labor  turnover,  of  ineflS- 
ciency,  and  of  lack  of  interest,  have  discovered  that  lack  of 
training  is  responsible  for  many  of  the  shortcomings  of  their 
workers  and  a  cause  of  much  higher  labor  costs  to  the  employer. 

5.   Relief  Work  to  Mitigate  Unemployment 

Relief  work  should  be  confined  to  the  concentration  of  large 
public  and  public  utility  constructions  in  periods  when  private 
employment  is  slack.  There  are  some  public  works  which  must 
be  put  through  without  delay.  There  are  others,  federal, 
state,  municipal,  or  railroad,  which  can  be  determined  upon  and 
then  deferred  to  a  time  when  a  slack  demand  is  throwing  many 
men  out  of  employment."^  At  such  times  the  public  work  should 
be  utilized  to  furnish  employment  for  thousands  of  otherwise 
unemployed  persons.  The  public  work  can  be  done  at  a  lower 
cost  than  if  it  competed  with  private  employers  for  labor  in 
a  busy  labor  market,  and  it  can  at  the  same  time  relieve  the 
unemployment  which  is  rife.  We  would  not  be  understood  to 
advocate  the  so-called  "relief  work."  We  do  not  believe  that 
it  is  sound  policy  to  undertake  any  public  work  for  the  mere 
purpose  of  furnishing  relief.  This  only  results  in  distributing 
charity  in  the  form  of  wages.  We  believe  in  calling  charity 
by  its  right  name.  What  we  advocate  is  that  public  work 
which  would  be  done  under  any  circumstances  be  done  at  times 
when  it  will  mitigate  the  unemployment  situation,  that  the 
workers  be  hired  at  market  rate  of  wages,  and  that  they  be  re- 
tained in  employment  only  so  long  as  they  earn  the  wages 
which  they  are  paid.  We  advocate  giving  honest  men  an  hon- 
est chance  to  work. 

»  Cf.  "A  National  Policy:  Public  Works  to  Stabilize  Employment,"  Otto  T. 
Mallery,  The  Annals,  January,  1919,  p.  56;  "Redistribution  of  Public  Work  in 
Oregon,"  Frank  O'Hara,  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  igis;  "Seasonal 
Fluctuation  in  Public  Works,"  F.  E.  Richter  {ibid.). 


PART   II 
THE  MACHINERY  OF  THE  LABOR  MARKET 


CHAPTER  VI 
THE  LABOR  MARKET  BEFORE  THE  WAR 

Professor  H.  R.  Seager  has  defined  a  market  as  "the  place 
or  conjunction  of  means  of  communication  through  which  buyers 
and  sellers  are  brought  together  for  the  exchange  of  economic 
goods,"  ^  There  are  two  facts  suggested  by  this  definition  which 
are  fundamental  to  our  discussion  in  this  and  the  succeeding 
chapters :  That  buyers  and  sellers  need  a  common  meeting 
place  at  which  they  can  buy  and  sell  their  goods ;  and  that 
markets  are  sometimes  places  where  buyers  and  sellers  meet 
face  to  face,  and  in  other  cases  a  means  of  communication, 
such  as  the  office  of  a  New  York  broker  where  stocks  may  be 
placed  for  sale  by  a  telegraph  message  from  Philadelphia  and 
sold  by  wire  to  a  purchaser  in  Sacramento.  A  market  is  a 
place  where  facilities  are  provided  by  means  of  which  buyers 
and  sellers  may  effect  exchanges. 

The  term  "market"  is  also  used  in  a  somewhat  different 
sense  to  signify  the  economic  area  in  which  a  given  commodity 
is  sold.  When  we  speak  of  "the  market  for  New  York  apples" 
we  may  mean  either  the  definite  places  at  which  such  apples 
are  sold,  or  the  areas  of  the  world's  surface  in  which  New  York 
apples  find  sale.  Professor  Richard  T.  Ely  has  expressed  this 
conception  of  the  word  "market"  thus:  "In  this  connection 
we  mean  by  the  market  not  a  particular  place  for  buying  and 
selling,  but  the  general  field  within  which  the  forces  determining 
the  price  of  a  particular  commodity  operate.  For  some  commodi- 
ties, especially  perishable  ones,  like  fresh  milk  and  cream, 
the  market  is  distinctly  a  local  one.  In  the  case  of  great  staple 
commodities,  like  wheat  and  cotton,  the  market  is  a  world 
market,  for  it  is  impossible  that  the  prices  of  wheat  or  cotton  in 

•"Principles  of  Economics,"  1913,  p.  no. 
141 


142  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

Europe  should  differ  for  any  considerable  time  from  their 
prices  in  America  by  more  than  the  expense  of  transport."  ^ 

The  writer  will  use  the  expression  "labor  market"  in  Part 
II  of  this  book  in  the  sense  in  which  Professor  Seager  uses  the 
word  "market,"  i.e.,  to  mean  by  "the  labor  market"  the 
definite  places  where  labor  is  sold  and  the  organizations  through 
which  the  sales  are  effected.  The  discussion  aims  to  show  what 
social  machinery  is  necessary  for  this  purpose,  and  what  ma- 
chinery has  or  has  not  been  provided  for  the  marketing  of  human 
muscle,  brains,  and  skill. 

It  is  necessary  to  remember,  however,  that  the  labor  market 
may  also  be  studied  from  the  other  point  of  view.  It  is  per- 
fectly proper  to  speak  of  conditions  in  the  American  or  the 
European,  the  New  York  or  the  Alabama  labor  market,  hav- 
ing in  mind  the  supply  of,  demand  for,  or  types  of  labor  present 
or  sought,  in  the  several  areas.  Our  first  five  chapters  (Part 
I)  discussed  the  American  labor  market  from  this  point  of  view. 
In  our  first  chapter  we  showed  that  the  demand  for  labor  oper- 
ates internationally  and  that  Europe's  supplies  of  labor  have 
profoundly  affected  the  life  and  welfare  of  the  American  wage 
earner  and  the  development  of  American  industry.  Similarities 
or  differences  of  wages  in  different  countries,  the  relative  pros- 
perity of  the  various  nations  in  specific  years,  and  many  other 
peculiarities  of  the  modern  world's  economic  life  are  continually 
affecting  the  wage  earners  of  the  various  countries.  From  this 
point  of  view  there  is  a  world  labor  market.  There  are  also 
national,  regional,  state,  and  local  labor  markets.  Large  buyers 
of  labor  often  seek  their  help  at  distant  points,  while  multitudes 
of  employers  depend  entirely  upon  the  local  market  for  employees. 
Differences  of  wages  in  different  countries  and  in  different 
localities  in  the  same  country  are  in  part  due  to  the  failure  of 
labor  to  flow  readily  from  one  local  market  to  another  and  in 
part  to  custom  and  other  special  conditions.  In  our  second 
chapter  we  pointed  out  that  the  demand  for  labor  in  any  mar- 
ket area  is  often  for  a  highly  specialized  type  of  labor,  rather 
than  simply  for  "labor,"  and   that  individual  workers  have 

1  "Outlines  of  Economics,"  1916,  p.  154. 


THE  LABOR  MARKET  BEFORE  THE  WAR  143 

peculiar  qualities  which  prevent  them  from  accepting  the  great 
majority  of  employers'  offers  of  employment.  These  employers 
and  these  workmen  may  have  open  to  them  a  rather  large  mar- 
ket, geographically,  in  which  to  sell  their  labor,  but  a  narrow 
market  industrially.  In  other  words,  in  order  to  buy  or  sell, 
they  must  find  means  to  seek  out  a  particular  person  who  fills 
their  particular  specialized  need. 

Within  the  market  area,  geographical  or  industrial,  there 
must  be  market  places  and  market  organization,  where  those 
who  wish  to  find  labor  and  those  who  wish  to  find  work  can 
bring  their  needs  and  offerings  together.  It  is  this  phase  of 
the  market  idea  in  which  we  are  now  particularly  interested. 

I.   Need  for  Labor  Marketing  Facilities 

Day  by  day  —  each  day  and  every  day  —  the  labor  power 
of  the  multitudes  is  being  offered  for  sale.  Day  by  day,  employ- 
ers are  seeking  help.  New  needs  for  workers  are  opening  up 
here;  employees  are  being  laid  off  yonder.  What  sort  of 
market  has  America  provided  in  which  the  purchase  and  sale 
of  this,  the  most  important  of  all  ''goods"  offered  for  sale,  can 
be  effected  ?     What  sort  of  market  is  needed  ? 

It  may  be  noted,  in  the  first  place,  that  a  very  large  percent- 
age of  the  places  filled  each  day  are  filled  without  the  utiliza- 
tion of  any  definite  labor  market  machinery.  The  workers 
make  direct  application  to  the  employers  for  work  and  are  engaged 
by  foremen  or  by  the  firm's  employment  department.  Most 
employers  seek  from  employment  offices  only  that  labor  which 
they  are  unable  to  get  in  any  other  way.  Newspaper  ads, 
street  car  posters,  signs  placed  in  windows,  and  bulletin  boards, 
have  ordinarily  brought  to  the  employer  many  more  workers 
than  he  can  possibly  hire.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  wage 
earners  are  engaged  each  year  through  information  of  openings 
conveyed  to  them  by  friends  already  working  in  the  establish- 
ments in  question.  A  majority  of  the  orders  placed  by  employers 
at  employment  offices  are  for  labor  to  go  out  of  town,  though  an 
efficient  employment  service  would  have  an  opposite  experience. 
It  would  find  its  most  important  field  in  dovetailing  the  de- 


144  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

mands  for  labor  within  the  community  in  such  a  way  that  men 
laid  off  in  one  establishment  would  be  transferred  to  others  in 
the  community,  thus  keeping  both  the  local  capital  and  local 
labor  steadily  employed. 

This  system  of  direct  employment,  which  is  so  characteristic 
of  American  industry,  has  certain  serious  faults.  It  has  the 
advantage,  from  the  employer's  point  of  view,  of  enabling  him 
to  "pick  over"  the  applicants  at  his  gate;  and,  from  the  man's 
point  of  view,  of  enabling  him  to  bargain  directly  with  his 
employer.  But,  unfortunately,  it  cannot  meet  the  employer's 
needs  unless  it  brings  to  the  place  of  employment  many  more  persons 
than  he  desires  to  engage.  Otherwise  he  would  have  no  oppor- 
tunity of  selection.  It  assumes  and  requires  the  existence  of  a 
considerable  idle  labor  surplus.  The  employee,  while  apply- 
ing at  one  or  two  establishments,  is  losing  his  chance  of  employ- 
ment on  that  day  at  other  establishments  which  he  is  unable 
to  visit.  If  there  is  a  strong  demand  for  labor,  many  positions 
may  go  unfilled  because  so  many  of  the  workers  are  scattered 
around  at  the  gates  of  establishments  which  do  not  need  their 
services.^ 

The  search  for  work,  fruitless  each  day  for  multitudes,  wastes 
the  workers'  strength,  time,  and  carfare,  undermines  their  self- 
respect,  impairs  their  efficiency.  It  makes  suppliants  of  them 
for  employment.  A  large  number  of  positions  will  always  be 
filled  by  direct  application  of  the  worker  to  the  employer  who 
he  knows  is  looking  for  help,  but  we  should  have  an  organization 
of  the  labor  market  which  would  make  this  peddling  of  a  man's 
or  a  woman's  labor  unnecessary.  It  is  a  survival  of  an  obsolete 
industrial  order,  and  persists  only  because  of  the  decentralized 
labor  surplus  discussed  in  our  first  chapter.  But  the  organiza- 
tion which  is  provided  must  be  entirely  different  from  the  em- 
ployment agencies  of  the  past.  It  must  be  efficient,  honest, 
and  neutral. 

1  The  relative  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  the  employer  and  employee  in 
bargaining  are  effectively  presented  by  Dr.  Richard  T.  Ely,  of  Wisconsin  University, 
in  his  work  on  "Property  and  Contract,"  Vol.  II,  Part  II,  Chap.  VI,  "Contracts 
for  Personal  Services  with  Especial  Reference  to  the  Labour  Coatract,"  pp.  627- 
643- 


THE   LABOR  MARKET  BEFORE  THE  WAR  145 

2.   The  Labor  Market  before  the  War 

It  is  necessary  to  trace  the  history  of  conditions  in  the  Amer- 
ican labor  market  during  the  decade  before  the  war.  To  under- 
stand the  present  situation  one  must  be  familiar  with  the  condi- 
tions out  of  which  it  developed. 

America  had  no  system  of  labor  placement  before  the  war. 
We  had  employment  offices  —  thousands  of  them.  And  the 
more  we  had,  the  worse  off  we  were.  Chaos  ruled  where  order 
alone  could  furnish  the  needed  service.  Commercial,  fee-charg- 
ing agencies ;  philanthropic  and  semi-philanthropic  ones ;  union, 
employers',  and  commercial  association  offices ;  federal,  state, 
and  municipal  agencies  existed  side  by  side  —  competing, 
duplicating,  working  at  cross  purposes.  Each  and  all  of  them 
were  inadequate  for  the  country's  needs.  Nearly  all  of  them 
did  as  much  harm  as  good.  The  fact  that  all  of  these  types 
have  persisted  through  the  war  period  and  are  functioning  at 
the  present  date  makes  a  detailed  examination  of  them  well 
worth  while. 

3.  Private,  Fee-charging  Agencies 

There  are  a  number  of  distinct  types  of  private  employment- 
agencies,  conducted  for  profit,  which  cater  to  distinctly  different 
types  of  trade.  The  teachers'  agencies,  the  collegiate  women's 
vocational  bureaus  found  in  more  than  a  dozen  cities,  a  small 
number  of  agencies  for  the  placement  of  social  workers,  and  the 
offices  which  furnish  high-grade  help  to  business  concerns, 
represent  the  most  efficient  and  most  reputable  group  of  private, 
fee-charging  offices.  The  collegiate  women's  bureaus  differ 
from  the  other  types  just  referred  to  in  being  conducted  for 
service  rather  than  for  profit.  Many  of  these,  perhaps  all  of 
them,  have  been  operated  at  a  loss.  They  have  been  able  to 
continue  in  operation  only  because  subsidized  by  interested 
citizens.^    The  teachers'  agencies  and  those  which  provide  high- 

>  Cf.    "Regulation   and    Control   of    Private   Employment    Agencies,"   M.  B. 
Hammond,  Bulletin  192,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  p.  79 ;  "Relation 
of  Public  to  Private  Employment  OflBces,"  pp.  38-39. 
L 


146  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

grade  business  help  can  continue  in  business  only  by  giving 
reputable  and  reasonably  efficient  service.  They  are  middle- 
men dealing  with  intelligent  clients,  and  though  their  fees  are 
often  exorbitant,  their  business  is  necessarily  free  from  the 
abuses  which  characterize  the  agencies  dealing  in  manual  labor. 
The  writer  does  not  believe  that  it  should  be  necessary  for  public 
school  teachers  to  pay  large  fees  to  job-brokers  in  order  to  get 
positions.  He  believes  that  these  agencies  are  as  indefensible 
as  the  corrupt  ones  dealing  in  some  other  classes  of  employment. 
But  the  reasons  for  their  elimination  must  be  found  in  consider- 
ations of  justice  and  public  policy  rather  than  in  abuses. 

The  profit-seeking  employment  agencies  which  supply  em- 
ployers with  manual  laborers,  on  the  other  hand,  have  developed 
most  objectionable  business  methods.  They  are  a  social  men- 
ace rather  than  a  social  benefit.^  They  disorganize  rather  than 
organize  the  labor  market;  they  increase  instead  of  decrease 
labor  turnover ;  they  are  honeycombed  with  graft,  dishonesty, 
and  trickery ;  and  they  increase  the  discontent  and  bitterness 
of  the  working  classes.  It  is  the  writer's  earnest  conviction, 
after  years  of  contact  with  these  agencies,  that  the  only  sound 
national  policy  is  to  eradicate  them  from  our  social  fabric,  root 
and  branch. 

Some  able  employment  men  believe  that  we  should  depend 
upon  the  slow  processes  of  competition  to  eliminate  these  private 
offices.  Others  hope  for  federal  regulation.^  The  writer  does 
not  agree  with  them.  He  considers  it  unsound  in  principle 
to  compel  a  citizen  to  pay  for  a  chance  to  get  work,  while  he  knows 
that  the  influence  of  these  offices  is  pernicious.     The  state  of 

1  Cf.  Report  of  the  Commission  on  Immigration  of  Massachusetts,  19 14,  House 
Docimient  No.  2300 ;  Report  of  the  Commission  of  Immigration  of  the  State  of  New 
Jersey,  1914  ;  Report  of  Bureau  of  Industries  and  Immigration  of  New  York  State 
Department  of  Labor,  1911 ;  abstract  of  Report  of  Immigration  Commission,  1911, 
Vol.  II,  pp.  443-49,  tWd.,  pp.  321  ff.;  also  pp.  375-386;  also  pp.  391-408;  .\nnual 
Report  of  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Immigration  for  1911,  pp.  121  fif. ;  also  Annual 
Report  for  1907,  pp.  70-71. 

*  Cf.  M.  B.  Hammond,  op.  cit.;  "Experience  in  Extending  and  Improving  the 
Work  of  a  Public  Employment  Office,"  W.  F.  Hennessy,  Bulletin  192,  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  p.  109;  "What  Must  Be  Done  to  Make  Public 
Offices  More  Effective?"    L.  D.  McCoy,  ibid.,  p.  52. 


THE   LABOR  MARKET   BEFORE   THE  WAR  147 

Washington  enacted  a  law/  initiated  and  passed  by  popular 
vote,  which  made  it  unlawful  for  any  employment  agent  "to 
demand  or  receive  either  directly  or  indirectly  from  any  person 
seeking  employment  .  .  .  any  remuneration  or  fee  whatsoever 
for  furnishing  him  or  her  with  employment  or  with  information 
leading  thereto."  This  law  was  held  unconstitutional  by  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court  in  a  five  to  four  decision  on  June 
17,  1917,^  as  "arbitrary  and  oppressive,"  and  an  undue  restric- 
tion on  the  liberty  of  the  appellants,  and  therefore  a  violation  of 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment.  It  is  hard  for  one  who  knows 
these  offices  to  believe  that  the  law  was  as  arbitrary  and  oppres- 
sive as  the  court's  decision,  which  overruled  the  wishes  of  the 
people  of  the  state  of  Washington.  We  cannot  believe,  however, 
that  this  decision  is  the  last  word  which  will  be  said  on  the 
subject  by  American  legislative  bodies  or  by  the  Supreme 
Court. 

The  best  organized  and  most  powerful  of  the  private  employ- 
ment agencies  are  those  which  supply  our  railways  with  common 
labor.  They  are  strong  business  organizations  with  central 
offices  in  such  labor  centers  as  New  York,  St.  Paul,  Minneapolis, 
Chicago,  or  St.  Louis,  and  branch  offices  or  representatives  in 
a  number  of  other  cities.  They  make  a  contract  with  one  or 
more  railways  which  provides :  (i)  that  the  agency  shall  keep 
the  railway  supplied  at  all  times  with  such  section,  extra  gang, 
and  other  construction  labor  as  it  needs ;  (2)  that  it  will  provide 
an  adequate  commissary  service  to  sleep  and  feed  the  railway's 
laborers  where  they  are  at  work ;  (3)  that  the  railway  will 
hire  no  laborers  of  the  types  specified  except  through  such 
agency ;  (4)  that  the  agency  shall  have  exclusive  rights  to 
operate  the  commissaries  along  its  lines ;  and  (5)  that  the  rail- 
way shall  provide  for  the  transportation  of  the  laborers  hired  to 
the  point  of  employment. 

Most  of  the  laborers  which  the  railways  seek  and  obtain  by 
this  method  consist  of  recent  immigrants  who  are  ignorant  of 
our  language  and  who  have  not  acquired  American  standards 

*  Chapter  I,  Laws,  191 5,  State  of  Washington. 

*  Joe  Adams,  el  al.  v.  \V.  V.  Tarrner,  37  Supreme  Court  Reporter,  662. 


148  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

of  wages  and  living  conditions.^  Sprinkled  among  them  are 
Americans,  generally  hard  drinkers,  most  of  whom  "  have 
seen  better  days."  In  the  actual  assembling  of  particular 
gangs  these  are  often  kept  separate  from  the  immigrant  crews. 
The  railway's  order  is  placed  with  the  central  ofl&ce  of  the 
agency.  Perhaps  it  is  for  one  thousand  men  between  March 
15  and  March  31  on  a  given  piece  of  line  in  North  Dakota. 
The  agency  has  ofi&ces  in  a  number  of  labor  centers,  such  as 
St.  Louis,  Chicago,  Omaha,  and  Minneapolis.  The  order  is 
split  up  among  them.  They  in  turn  make  arrangements  with 
padrones  or  other  racial  leaders  among  the  immigrants  to  assem- 
ble laborers  of  their  own  races  and  bring  them  to  the  agency. 
These  agreements,  which  are  almost  always  verbal  (the  agencies 
put  as  little  of  their  business  as  the  law  allows  on  paper)  com- 
monly require  the  padrone  to  assemble  a  given  number  of  men. 
Often  the  initiative  comes  from  the  padrone  in  an  offer  to  furnish 
a  given  number  of  men  on  given  terms.  The  padrone's  com- 
mission is  sometimes  paid  directly  to  him  by  the  agency  "spUt- 
ting"  the  cash  fees  charged  the  men  given  jobs,  but  as  frequently 
consists  of  a  job  as  foreman  over  the  "gang"  and  the  privilege 
of  bleeding  them  for  interpreter's  fees,  commissions  for  getting 
them  their  jobs,  for  keeping  them  from  being  discharged,  and 
other  petty  grafts.  The  immigrants,  when  in  Europe,  Hved 
in  a  social  order  honeycombed  with  "graft."  Bribes  and 
"presents"  to  those  in  authority  over  them  were  their  ordinary 
experience.  When  they  come  to  America  they  accept  grafting 
by  bosses  and  employment  agencies  as  natural.  Before  they 
become  sophisticated,  they  are  "rich  picking"  for  those  engaged 
in  selling  and  buying  the  labor  of  men  as  they  would  the  labor 
of  horses.  When  they  come  to  understand  that  better  earnings 
are  possible  to  them  than  the  railways  pay,  and  learn  enough 
EngUsh  so  that  they  can  seek  their  own  jobs,  they  leave  rail- 
way work  and  enter  other  occupations ;  but  the  agencies  which 

1  Cf.  Abstract  of  Reports  of  Immigration  Commission,  Vol.  11,  p.  405;  "The 
Chicago  Employment  Agency  and  the  Immigrant  Worker,"  Grace  Abbott,  A  merican 
Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  3  ;  Final  Report  of  Industrial  Relations  Com- 
mission, Vol.  II,  pp.  1 170,  1341-1362,  1908. 


THE  LABOR   MARKET   BEFORE   THE  WAR  149 

supply  the  railways  with  labor  have  been  able,  until  the  Euro- 
pean war  period,  to  turn  continually  to  new  supplies  of  raw 
immigrants. 

The  furnishing  of  labor  to  railways  by  employment  offices  is 
essentially  an  interstate  business.  The  men  obtained  by  the 
agency  have  to  be  distributed  over  the  railway's  lines,  which 
generally  spread  through  a  number  of  states  and  often  reach 
into  Canada.  The  supply  of  labor,  as  we  have  already  sug- 
gested, must  also  be  accumulated  by  the  agency  from  labor 
centers  located  in  different  states.  Often  agencies  located  in 
the  middle  west  place  part  of  their  orders  for  railway  labor  with 
agencies  located  in  the  east  or  south  or  with  agencies  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  and  bring  the  laborers  long  distances. 

The  interstate  character  of  the  business,  the  fact  that  the 
men  dealt  with  are  ignorant,  and  the  absence  of  any  standard 
fees  which  the  agency  can  or  must  charge  are  all  conditions 
which  lead  naturally  to  many  abuses.^    The  interstate  char- 

'  The  reader  may  be  interested  in  some  specific  cases  illustrating  employment 
abuses.  Before  presenting  a  few  cases  and  references  to  others,  the  author  wishes  to 
call  the  reader's  attention  to  the  fact  that  in  most  of  the  cases  cited  he  will  find  the 
employer  as  much  at  fault  as  the  employment  agent.  The  employers  who  patronize 
the  agencies  seem  to  include  a  good  many  who  either  have  no  interest  in  looking 
after  their  workingmen  properly  or  do  not  realize  the  many  injustices  which  men 
suffer  through  their  carelessness. 

Sixteen  men  were  hired  by  an  employment  agency  in  St.  Paul  as  rough  carpenters 
and  laborers  on  bridge  construction  work  in  Montana.  They  each  paid  S2  for 
their  jobs.  They  were  shipped  on  a  single  pass  for  the  sixteen  men.  They  reached 
their  destination  on  November  i,  1916,  at  5  p.m.  and  went  directly  to  the  foreman  of 
the  contracting  company  doing  the  work.  He  was  much  surprised  at  their  arrival 
and  said  that  there  was  no  place  for  them  to  stay  except  in  a  tent,  and  no  bedding 
or  blankets  for  them.  The  next  day  they  were  informed  by  the  time  keeper  that 
he  would  sell  them  blankets  at  $2.25  apiece,  cash.  The  time  keeper  woidd  not 
let  them  have  blankets  unless  they  paid  cash  or  deposited  their  tools  with  him 
as  security.     As  a  result  the  men  refused  to  go  to  work. 

The  fare  home  was  $27.08,  and  at  least  three  of  the  men  were  married  men  with 
their  homes  in  St.  Paul.  One  man's  wife  succeeded  in  wiring  him  the  fare,  and  his 
losses  therefore  consisted  of  the  $2  fee,  $27.08  fare,  and  a  week's  time.  Both  of 
the  other  carpenters'  wives  were  in  want  and  unable  to  raise  money  to  wire  them 
their  fares.  One  of  them  had  sLx  children.  This  exploit  was  the  work  of  a  rail- 
road agency. 

A  Minneapolis  agency,  during  the  harsest  season,  started  sending  men  to  Canada 
to  a  certain  farm  near  Regina,  which  had  not  placed  any  order  with  the  agency. 
Eleven  mea  were  in  this  gang  and  paid  $2  each  for  their  jobs.    When  the  men 


I50  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

acter  of  the  business  makes  it  impossible  for  individual  states  to 
adequately  regulate  the  agencies.  When  a  state  has  a  good  law 
the  agency  can  generally  make  it  ineffectual  by  shipping  men  to 
distant  points.  For  example,  men  sent  from  MinneapoUs 
or  St.  Louis  to  Montana  or  the  Canadian  Northwest  find  it 
difficult  to  return  to  those  cities  and  file  a  complaint  and  prove 
their  case,  if  they  do  not  find  conditions  at  the  job  as  they  were 
represented  by  the  agency.  Many  states  have  not  tried  to 
regulate  the  agencies,  or  have  laws  which  are  entirely  inadequate 
even  for  intrastate  regulation. 

The  recent  Ontario  law  on  the  regulation  of  private  employ- 
ment agencies  embodies  most  of  the  provisions  found  in  the 

got  there  they  of  course  found  no  work  and  complained  to  the  Dominion  authorities, 
who  referred  the  matter  to  the  state  authorities  of  Minnesota.  The  agency  quickly 
refunded  the  fees  when  it  was  caught,  but  after  investigation  of  its  record,  its  license 
to  do  business  was  revoked. 

Here  is  a  part  of  that  agency's  previous  record.  Definite  information  of  sixty 
other  cases  sent  under  the  same  conditions  as  the  eleven  cited  above  was  in  the 
possession  of  the  chief  of  pohce.  The  owner  of  the  agency  had  a  personal  police 
record  which  covered  half  a  page,  closely  typewritten,  which  included  the  passing 
of  worthless  checks  and  the  management  of  a  disorderly  house.  A  warrant  was 
out  for  his  arrest  at  the  time,  at  Hartford,  Connecticut. 

In  May,  1917,  this  same  agency  charged  a  man  and  wife  $15  for  a  farm  job 
in  North  Dakota  and  agreed  to  pay  their  fare  out  of  the  fee.  When  they  got  there 
they  found  that  the  fare  was  to  be  taken  out  of  their  wages.  The  wife  had  been  told 
that  she  would  have  to  cook  only  for  her  husband,  but  when  she  arrived  she  had  to 
cook  for  fourteen  men.  When  a  demand  was  made  for  a  return  of  part  of  the  fee 
the  agent  said  "that  there  was  no  limit  on  the  amount  that  he  could  charge  if  he 
wanted  to." 

Another  man  was  sent  to  work  for  a  company  in  BrovvTis  Valley,  Minnesota,  and 
when  he  arrived  there  found  that  there  was  no  such  company.  The  agent  refused 
to  refund  either  his  fee  or  his  expenses. 

In  the  complaint  to  the  mayor  which  resulted  in  the  revocation  of  his  license, 
thirty  similar  cases  of  fraud  were  presented  as  evidence  against  the  agency. 

Cf.  also  Chapter XV  "The  Common  Laborer"  ;  " The  Immigrant  Worker  and  the 
Public  Employment  Bureau,"  Anne  Erickson,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics,  Bulletin  192,  p.  128;  "The  Immigrant  and  the  Industrial  World,"  W.  F. 
Hennessy,  ibid.,  p.  133;  "The  Employment  Service  as  a  Means  of  Public  Educa- 
tion," D.  D.  Lescohier,  Industrial  Management,  April,  1919,  Vol.  LVII,  No.  4, 
p.  398;  The  Biermial  Reports  of  the  Minnesota  Department  of  Labor  and  Indus- 
try from  1910  to  date;  the  First  Annual  Report  of  the  Bureau  of  Industries  and 
Immigration  of  the  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor,  191 1 ;  the  Report  of  the 
Commission  of  Immigration  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  1914;  and  the  Report  of 
the  Massachusetts  Commission  on  Immigration,  "The  Problem  of  Immigration  in 
Massachusetts,"  1914. 


THE  LABOR   MARKET   BEFORE  THE  WAR  151 

best  American  laws.^  It,  unfortunately,  has  their  essential 
defect,  since  it  is  the  law  of  a  province  rather  than  of  the  Domin- 
ion. All  employment  agencies  must  be  licensed  annually  by 
the  Superintendent  of  the  Trades  and  Labour  Branch  of  the  prov- 
ince, and  must  also  obtain  licenses  from  each  municipality  in 
which  they  operate  "an  office,  branch,  or  agency."  The  Lieu- 
tenant Governor  in  Council  is  empowered  to  fix  the  fees  to  be 
paid  for  licenses,  to  promulgate  rules  regulating  the  conduct 
of  the  business  and  prescribing  the  records  and  accounts  "to 
be  kept  by  any  class  of  employment  agency,"  to  fix  the  fees 
which  may  be  charged  employees  or  employers  by  the  agencies, 
requiring  reports  to  the  provincial  government,  for  the  cancella- 
tion of  a  license  "upon  the  conviction  of  the  holder  thereof 
for  any  offence  or  upon  proof  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  superin- 
tendent that  the  business  of  the  licensee  is  being  conducted 
dishonestly,  unfairly,  or  improperly,"  for  the  "conferring  upon 
the  superintendent  and  upon  inspectors  of  employment  agencies, 
the  power  to  hold  inquiries  into  the  conduct  of  the  business  of 
an  employment  agency  and  to  take  evidence  under  oath" 
and  giving  such  ofl&cial  "the  powers  which  may  be  conferred 
upon  a  commissioner  under  the  Public  Inquiries  Act." 

The  Lieutenant  Governor's  regulations  issued  during  191 7 
provided  for  a  provincial  license  fee  of  $25,  accompanied  by  a 
bond  of  $200.  The  superintendent  who  issued  licenses  was 
given  broad  discretionary  power  in  selecting  those  to  whom 
licenses  should  be  granted.  He  can  refuse  to  license  any  appli- 
cant whom  he  finds  "is  not  a  proper  person  to  engage  in  the 
business  of  an  employment  agency,"  or  whose  proposed  place 
of  business  is  on  or  immediately  adjoining  "unsuitable  prem- 
ises." A  license  may  be  revoked  for  violation  of  the  law  or  of 
any  rules  or  regulations  thereunder,  "or  if  any  ground  appears 
on  which  a  license  might  have  been  refused  at  the  time  of  appli- 
cation."    An  agency  is  not  permitted  to  "charge  any  person 

'The  Employment  Agencies  Act,  191 7  Session,  Legislature  of  Ontario.  Digest 
of  law  and  of  regulations  issued  thereunder  by  the  Lieutenant  Governor  in  Council 
will  be  found  in  Report  of  the  Trade  and  Labour  Branch  of  the  Department  of  Public 
Works,  Province  of  Ontario,  1917,  pp.  88-91. 


152  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

a  larger  fee  than  one  dollar  for  securing  employment  for  him, 
or  any  employer  a  larger  fee  than  one  dollar  for  each  employee 
secured  for  him,  and  no  further  or  other  reward  or  remunera- 
tion shall  be  accepted  by  an  employment  agency,"  and  the 
agencies  are  not  permitted  to  charge  for  transportation  "an 
amount  greater  than  the  actual  cost  of  transportation."  No 
agency  is  permitted  to  divide  "with  or  to  any  employer  or  work- 
man, any  fee  received  by  it  for  services  rendered  to  such  employer 
or  workman."  If  a  workman  fails,  through  no  fault  of  his  own, 
to  obtain  employment  from  the  employer  to  whom  he  has  been 
referred  by  an  employment  agency,  "the  whole  amount  paid 
by  such  person  to  the  employment  agency  as  a  fee  (or  for  trans- 
portation) shall  be  refunded  to  him  upon  demand."  The  agen- 
cies are  not  permitted  to  accept  registration  fees.  They  can- 
not accept  a  fee  from  an  applicant  unless  "at  the  time"  they 
have  "in  hand  a  written  and  dated  order  from  an  employer 
offering  the  position  which  the  applicant  is  seeking,"  and  the 
agency  must  give  a  receipt  to  each  person  from  whom  it  accepts 
fees,  giving  the  particulars  about  the  fee  and  the  position,  and 
a  copy  of  the  receipt  must  be  kept  in  the  agency  for  twelve 
months. 

"A  private  employment  agency  shall  not  engage  for  any 
employer  any  person  seeking  employment,  unless  at  the  time 
it  has  in  its  possession  a  written  and  dated  (italics  ours)  order 
from  the  employer  stating  the  number  of  men  or  women  re- 
quired, and  full  particulars  as  to  the  nature  of  the  employment, 
the  rate  of  wages,  the  cost  of  board  (if  provided  by  the  employer), 
all  deductions  from  wages  and  all  other  terms  affecting  the  em- 
ployment and  such  other  particulars  as  may  be  prescribed  by 
the  superintendent." 

Every  agency  must  keep  posted  in  a  conspicuous  place  its 
license  and  the  Employment  Agencies  Act,  191 7,  must  have 
all  forms  of  contracts  used  in  its  business  approved  by  the 
superintendent,  must  keep  such  records  and  in  such  form  as 
required  by  the  superintendent,  and  have  them  open  to  inspec- 
tion at  all  times  by  any  ofl5cer  of  the  Trades  and  Labour  Branch, 
and  make  such  reports  as  the  superintendent  prescribes. 


THE   LABOR   MARKET  BEFORE   THE   WAR  1 53 

This  vigorous  effort  at  regulation  has  not  been  in  force  long 
enough  to  enable  us  to  ascertain  its  practical  results.  It  em- 
bodies the  best  ideas  found  in  American  employment  agency 
regulation,  but  confers  greater  discretionary  power  upon  the 
administrative  ofl&cials  than  any  American  statute.  It  will 
furnish  an  interesting  test  of  the  truth  of  the  contention  of  pri- 
vate employment  agents  that  they  cannot  profitably  carry  on 
their  business  on  a  flat  one  dollar  fee.^ 

The  ignorance  (often  due  to  intoxication)  of  the  men  handled, 
both  with  respect  to  their  rights  and  with  respect  to  the  proper 
authorities  with  whom  to  file  complaints,  makes  it  very  easy  for 
private  employment  agencies  to  cheat  them  or  to  send  them  to 
jobs  which  they  do  not  want.  The  lack  of  any  standard  or 
legal  fees  to  be  charged  men  for  jobs  enables  the  agency  to 
fix  the  fee  according  to  the  conditions  of  the  labor  market 
and  in  individual  cases  according  to  the  degree  of  intelligence 
of  the  man  seeking  a  job.  When  there  are  many  men  out  of 
work  and  employment  is  scarce,  they  charge  a  high  fee.  When 
men  are  scarce  and  jobs  are  plentiful,  they  charge  a  low  fee. 
Offices  serving  railway  companies  often  refrain  from  charging 
fees  at  times  when  men  are  scarce,  for  they  must  get  the  men 
needed  by  the  railway  even  if  they  have  to  carry  on  their  busi- 
ness at  a  loss  for  the  time  being.  But  when  employment  is 
relatively  scarce  the  agencies  gather  in  their  harvest.  Even 
in  times  when  work  is  plentiful  they  often  charge  exorbitant 
fees  if  the  applicant  is  unfamiliar  with  our  language,  ignorant, 
feeble-minded,  intoxicated,  or  otherwise  unable  to  protect  his 
own  rights.  Their  general  principle  is  to  charge  whatever 
the  trafiic  will  bear.  And  the  more  incompetent  the  worker 
is  to  protect  himself,  the  more  he  pays  for  his  job,  and  the  more 
liable  he  is  to  be  sent  out  to  misrepresented  work. 

The  same  employment  agencies  which  handle  railway  work 
also  accept  orders  from  other  classes  of  employers.  They 
obtain  workmen  for  lumber  woods,  farming  and  harvest  fields, 

•  Some  of  the  best  American  statutes  are  those  of  CaUfornia,  Illinois,  New  York, 
Minnesota,  and  Wisconsin.  The  laws  of  all  the  states  are  published  from  time  to  time 
in  bulletins  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  entitled  "Labor  Laws 
of  the  United  States." 


154  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

contractors,  out  of  town  manufacturers,  and  for  many  other 
lines  of  business  which  find  it  necessary  to  hire  labor  from  a 
distance.  In  other  words,  they  cater  to  the  seasonal  demands 
of  many  lines  of  business  and  make  a  specialty  of  shipping  labor 
from  one  locality  to  another.  They  speak  of  their  business  as 
"moving  labor,"  and  when  men  are  sent  to  a  job  they  are 
"shipped."  These  two  expressions  summarize  the  private 
employment  agent's  conception  of  his  occupation.  It  is  his 
job  to  move  labor,  not  to  place  it  where  it  will  stay.  It  is  his 
job  to  ship  labor,  not  to  place  men.^  During  the  winter  season 
when  the  railways'  demand  for  labor  is  slack,  they  give  especial 
attention  to  lumbering  and  during  the  harvest  season  they 
emphasize  the  harvest  work.  The  railways  in  the  small  grain 
country  do  not  urge  their  needs  for  men  during  the  harvest 
season.  They  would  rather  see  the  farmer  supplied  with  help 
and  the  harvest  brought  in  than  to  push  their  own  work.  The 
success  of  the  railroad  in  the  grain  area  depends  upon  the  suc- 
cess of  the  farmer,  and  the  employment  agency  is  therefore 
free  during  the  harvest  period  to  concentrate  on  that  work. 

There  are  many  small  private  agencies  existing  side  by  side 
with  the  larger  ones  holding  the  railways'  orders.  Some  of 
these  smaller  agencies  have  offices  in  but  a  single  town.  Others 
have  offices  in  two  or  more  cities.  The  large  agencies  dominate 
the  private  employment  agency  world  just  as  the  United  States 
Steel  Corporation  dominates  the  steel  world  or  the  Standard 
Oil  Company  dominates  the  oil  industry.  In  neither  case  does 
the  large  competitor  monopolize  the  field,  but  in  each  case  it 
dictates  to  a  large  extent  the  policies  and  practices  of  the  smaller 
companies. 

The  smaller  local  agencies  depend  upon  orders  from  lumbering, 
contracting,  farming,  and  manufacturing,  and  other  such  indus- 
tries. Their  methods  of  doing  business  are  the  same  as  those 
found  in  the  railway  agencies.  We  will  now  briefly  sketch  the 
business  practices  found  in  private  employment  agencies  han- 
dling manual  laborers. 

>  A  good  illustration  will  be  found  in  "Destructive  Labor  Recnuting,"  C.  T. 
Clayton,  Bulletin  247,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 


THE  LABOR   MARKET  BEFORE  THE   WAR  1 55 

In  most  states  the  agencies  are  required  by  law  to  take  out 
licenses.  In  Minnesota,  for  instance,  the  state  law  requires 
a  license  to  be  taken  out  in  the  municipality  in  which  the  agency 
is  located.  This  law  requires  the  business  name  and  address 
of  the  agency  and  the  name  of  its  manager  to  be  filed  with  the 
license  department ;  requires  the  employment  office  to  record 
certain  specified  facts  concerning  the  job  and  the  man  who 
has  accepted  it;  to  retain  in  the  office  a  carbon  copy  of  the 
slip  which  is  given  to  employees  sent  out ;  and  specifies  the  data 
which  shall  be  entered  on  that  "send-out"  slip.  If  the  agency 
misrepresents  the  facts  with  respect  to  wages  or  the  kind  of 
work  which  is  to  be  done,  or  in  any  other  way,  the  workman  is 
entitled  to  reimbursement  of  his  fee  and  of  his  financial  losses ; 
but  as  already  stated,  most  of  the  men  are  shipped  far  enough 
away  so  that  they  will  not  be  able  to  go  back  and  make  a  com- 
plaint. Only  a  federal  law  with  real  teeth  can  reach  these  agencies. 
Most  of  the  wrongs  they  perpetrate  on  workmen  are  in  the  inter- 
state shipment  of  men.  State  laws  cannot  meet  the  situation. 
Workmen  could  make  complaint  to  federal  officials  \Ndthout 
returning  to  the  point  of  shipment  and  could  get  redress  in 
federal  courts  at  the  point  where  they  suffered  wrong. 

The  agencies  should  be  abolished ;  but  if  that  is  impossible 
at  present,  they  should  certainly  be  put  under  stringent  federal 
regulation. 

Most  of  the  larger  orders  for  men  come  into  a  relatively  small 
number  of  offices.  For  instance,  in  Minneapolis,  where  there 
are  approximately  thirty-five  private  offices  licensed  and  oper- 
ating, less  than  half  of  the  agencies  receive  the  orders  for  more 
than  two  thirds  of  the  men  supplied  to  employers.  If  the 
agency  which  receives  an  order  doubts  its  ability  to  fill  it  in 
the  time  available,  it  places  parts  of  the  order  with  a  number  of 
other  agencies  in  the  district  so  that  a  number  of  competitors 
are  working  on  the  same  order;  but  all  men  are  shipped  out 
by  the  company  which  had  the  order  in  the  first  instance.  The 
agencies  which  are  given  the  privilege  of  working  on  the  order  get 
the  fees  for  the  men  they  secure,  but  the  holder  of  the  order 
gets  the  credit  with  the  employer  for  having  secured  the  men. 


156  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

This  cooperation  of  the  agencies  with  each  other  again  strik- 
ingly appears  when  one  of  them  is  arrested.  It  is  the  common 
thing  under  such  conditions  for  a  subscription  to  be  taken  up 
among  the  different  agencies  to  bear  jointly  the  cost  of  the 
trial,  and  probably  in  some  cases  to  divide  the  fine  assessed. 
In  other  words,  the  agencies  work  together  for  mutual  protec- 
tion just  as  the  saloons  have  done.  Their  business,  like  the 
liquor  business,  has  been  one  which  naturally  developed  more 
or  less  grafting  and  violation  of  law,  and  court  defense  has  been 
one  of  the  natural  characteristics  of  the  business.  Out  of  nearly 
forty  agencies  in  one  of  our  large  cities,  the  chief  of  police  told 
the  author  that  there  were  only  three  which  had  not  been  prose- 
cuted at  one  time  or  another.  Some  agencies  are  very  partic- 
ular to  observe  the  exact  letter  of  the  law  and  to  try  to  conduct 
their  business  as  reputably  as  possible ;  but  the  great  majority 
expect  to  squeeze  all  they  can  out  of  the  men  and  to  do  their 
best  to  avoid  detection  and  conviction.^ 

The  methods  they  use  in  securing  men  for  employers  are 
varied.  Every  one  who  has  been  through  the  employment 
districts  which  center  around  the  railroad  depots  of  many  of 
our  larger  cities  is  familiar  with  the  flamboyant  signs  which 
are  displayed  in  front  of  the  agencies,  advertising  jobs  and 
wages  of  various  kinds.  But  the  private  agent  does  not  put 
up  his  sign  and  then  go  comfortably  inside  his  office  and  smoke 
his  pipe.  He  leaves  that  kind  of  employment  work  to  public 
and  philanthropic  employment  offices.  The  manager  and 
clerks  in  the  private  employment  agency  are  paid  a  small  sal- 
ary and  commissions.  They  get  so  much  a  head  for  the  men 
they  hire  and  their  earnings  depend  upon  their  activity  and 
success.  Therefore  they  depend  upon  "personal  work"  to 
secure  men.  Generally  one  of  the  office  clerks  or  the  manager 
will  be  found  in  front  of  the  office  "  buttonhoUng "  men  who  go 
by  on  the  street,  urging  them  to  come  in  and  get  a  job.  The 
larger  agencies  have  "runners,"  who  circulate  among  the  men 
on  the  streets  dressed  in  working  clothes  and  appearing  identical 

*  Cf.  also  testimony  relative  to  "EmplojTnent  Agents'  Protective  Associations," 
in  Final  Report  of  Industrial  Relations  Commission,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1177-1191. 


THE  LABOR  MARKET  BEFORE  THE  WAR  157 

in  type  with  the  class  of  workingmen  among  whom  they  are 
working.  Indeed,  they  are  the  same ;  but  they  have  tempora- 
rily secured  this  particular  kind  of  job.  These  "runners"  do 
not  let  the  workers  in  the  district  know  that  they  are  employees 
of  the  employment  agency,  but  in  saloons,  boarding  houses, 
pool  rooms,  and  other  places  where  workingmen  congregate 
they  casually  get  into  conversation  with  the  groups  of  men,  tell 
them  about  "a.  fine  job"  that  such  and  such  an  agency  has 
listed,  and  suggest,  "let's  all  go  out  on  that  job  to-night."  They 
lead  their  men  to  the  agency  and  get  them  signed  up  and  their 
fees  paid.  These  "runners"  are  paid  only  their  commissions 
on  the  men  whom  they  bring  to  the  office.  Ordinarily  they 
show  up  with  the  rest  of  the  crew  at  "shipping  time,"  go  down 
to  the  train  and  then,  either  in  the  depot  or  after  they  have 
actually  boarded  the  train,  they  slip  away  to  do  the  same  kind 
of  work  the  next  day.  A  typical  agency  had  two  men  in  its 
office  but  eight  on  its  staff,  six  of  whom  were  doing  this  sort  of 
work.  In  other  cases  employees  of  the  agency  go  openly  through 
the  saloons  and  other  "hangouts"  and  talk  with  the  men,  giv- 
ing those  whom  they  succeed  in  interesting  a  card  of  introduc- 
tion to  take  to  the  agency  and  be  signed  up  for  the  job.  These 
men  are  credited  with  hiring  such  men  as  come  to  the  office 
with  their  cards  of  introduction  and  receive  a  commission  from 
the  fees  paid  by  such  men. 

Saloons,  hotels,  pool  rooms,  and  lodging  houses  are  also 
definitely  utilized  by  the  employment  agencies  for  the  recruit- 
ing of  men.  It  is  not  possible  to  tell  whether  the  agencies  give 
these  business  concerns  a  rebate  from  the  fees  obtained,  or 
whether  they  get  their  entire  profit  from  the  workingmen  who 
are  directed  to  them  by  the  agencies. 

In  many  cities  certain  saloons  have  had  definite  arrangements 
with  employers  to  act  as  recruiting  agencies  for  them.  The 
system  employed  at  one  of  these  saloons  is  an  interesting  side- 
light on  the  sense  of  responsibility  to  their  workers  developed 
by  some  employers.  Thank  God,  most  employers  are  not  of 
this  type.  The  saloon  in  question  had  a  restaurant  in  the  rear 
of  the  saloon  and  a  lodging  house  upstairs.    Advertisements 


158  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

of  the  labor  needs  of  four  firms  were  written  on  the  mirror  back 
of  the  bar  with  a  notice  that  a  representative  from  the  employers 
would  come  to  the  saloon  at  seven  in  the  morning  to  take  any 
men  who  wanted  jobs  out  to  the  work.  "Runners"  came  to 
the  saloon  each  morning  and  took  the  men  who  were  assembled 
there  to  the  establishments,  one  of  which  was  fifteen  miles  out 
of  town,  but  which  made  no  effort  to  provide  housing  at  the  plant. 
Each  evening  the  runners  took  the  men  back  to  the  saloon  again 
to  sleep.  The  men  were  paid  off  with  brass  checks  cashable  at 
the  saloon}  Each  night  they  received  a  check  for  $1.50,  which 
was  approximately  two  thirds  of  their  day's  wage.  This  check 
was  cashable  only  at  this  particular  saloon  or  by  the  employer 
himself.  The  saloon  keeper  did  not  give  the  men  more  than  one 
half  of  a  check's  value  in  money ;  the  remainder  had  to  be  taken 
out  in  trade  —  lodging,  meals,  or  drinks. 

4.  Employers'  and  Trade  Union  Employment  Offices 

Employers'  associations,  and  in  some  cases  Associations  of 
Commerce,^  have  maintained  employment  offices  in  many  cities. 
They  have  had  a  number  of  reasons  for  doing  so.  In  the  first 
place,  there  were  no  efficient,  reputable  agencies  to  whom  they 
could  turn  when  in  need  of  labor.  They  lacked  confidence  in 
the  public  agencies  and  held  the  private  agencies  already  de- 
scribed in  contempt.  They  had  to  have  some  rehable  agency 
that  they  could  depend  on  for  the  kind  of  men  they  needed. 
Sometimes  they  were  actuated  by  the  desire  to  have  an  anti- 
union office,  or  at  least  one  devoid  of  union  influence.  In  other 
cases,  as  at  Detroit,  their  chief  purpose  was  probably  to  attract 
labor  from  other  places  for  growing  local  industries,  while  they 
also  thought  it  cheaper  to  maintain  a  joint  office  than  well- 
equipped  employment  offices  in  each  plant.  But  workmen 
in  general  will  not  patronize  an  office  maintained  by  employers. 

»  The  facts  in  this  case  are  fully  known  to  the  writer.  Cf.  "Levying  Tribute  on 
Those  Seeking  Work,"  The  Survey,  Vol.  XXXVI,  p.  457- 

*  Cf.  "PoUciesand  Methods  of  Employment  Agencies  Maintained  by  Employers 
or  Associations,"  Andrew  J.  Allen,  Bulletin  192,  L^nited  States  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics,  pp.  52-53. 


THE  LABOR   MARKET   BEFORE  THE   WAR  159 

They  are  afraid  that  it  will  be  used  "for  blacklisting,  breaking 
strikes,  and  beating  down  wages." 

The  well-organized  trades  maintain  an  employment  service 
for  their  own  members.  The  business  agent  or  secretary  of  the 
union  keeps  a  list  of  all  unemployed  members,  and  employers 
who  need  men  simply  telephone  the  business  agent,  who  then 
notifies  the  men.  This  works  very  well  where  trades  are  com- 
pletely organized  and  employers  operate  under  an  agreement 
with  the  unions.  But  employers  in  general  will  not  patronize 
a  union  ofiice  any  more  than  the  men  will  patronize  an  employ- 
ers' oflSce.  "It  gives  the  union  too  powerful  a  weapon  in  the 
struggle  for  control." 

The  field  of  usefulness  of  offices  maintained  by  groups  of 
employers  or  by  groups  of  workers  is  therefore  very  limited. 
They  may  solve  the  employment  problem  for  special  groups 
of  establishments  or  of  workers,  but  they  cannot  provide  any 
general  organization  of  the  labor  market. 

5.   Philanthropic  or  Semi-Philanthropic  Offices 

Every  city  of  any  size  has  had  free  employment  offices  oper- 
ated by  charity  societies,  and  practically  free  ones  operated 
by  such  organizations  as  the  Y.  M.  and  Y.  W.  C.  A.  In  the 
larger  cities  these  are  often  very  numerous.  But  the  suggestion 
of  charity  makes  it  impossible  for  them  to  serve  more  than  the 
very  limited  number  of  persons  who  patronize  the  organization 
in  question.  They  do  some  good  for  individuals,  but  they  do 
not  and  could  not  organize,  or  even  help  organize,  the  employ- 
ment market.  They  simply  constitute  one  more  means  of 
decentralizing  a  service  which  can  be  efficient  only  if  centralized. 
They  have  done  a  great  deal  of  good  for  particular  individuals 
who  have  needed  the  particular  kind  of  help  that  they  have  been 
able  to  give,  but  their  value  is  negligible  when  they  are  appraised 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  industrial  problem  of  employment. 
They  have  tided  some  unfortunate  or  some  young  man  or  woman 
over  a  personal  difficulty  in  securing  employment,  but  they 
have  contributed  little  to  the  larger  problem  of  filling  industry's 
need  for  workers,  and  wage  earners'  needs  for  employment. 


i6o  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

6.   Public  Employment  Agencies 

We  come  now  to  the  public  employment  agencies,  which 
operate  without  charging  fees  and  at  the  taxpayers'  expense. 
They  were  as  complete  a  failure,  as  far  as  organization  of  the 
labor  market  is  concerned,  up  to  the  time  when  we  entered  the 
war  as  the  private  agencies.  In  an  article '  on  this  subject  in 
June,  1918,  the  writer  said: 

"We  have  state  and  municipal  offices  in  nearly  half  of  the  states, 
but  in  most  cases  each  local  office  works  individually  and  without 
any  correlation  with  other  public  offices  in  the  same  state.  The 
federal  government  has  had  an  extremely  crude  employment  system 
in  the  post-offices,  and  has  made  a  weak  attempt  at  federal-state 
cooperative  offices  in  the  Immigration  Bureau.  Both  of  these  experi- 
ments were  failures,  and  the  Federal  government  is  now  attempting 
to  develop  a  real  organization  of  the  labor  market  through  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor.  Little  practical  progress  has  been  made,  and  no 
genuine  success  wiU  be  achieved  until  the  nation  more  fully  recognizes 
some  of  the  fundamental  facts  in  the  situation  with  which  they  are 
seeking  to  cope." 

Our  national  need  is  very  evident. 

"We  must  have  a  system  of  employment  offices,  national  in  scope 
and  monopohzing  the  whole  employment  business,  which  wUl  be  so 
carefuUy  worked  out  that  every  worker  can  be  placed  in  the  nearest 
job  that  he  is  able  to  fiU  and  will  have  access  to  every  job  open  to 
his  particular  capacity.  Our  system  must  be  able  to  keep  every 
workman  employed  with  the  maximum  steadiness ;  must  be  able 
to  sift  and  classify  the  laborers,  so  that  individuals  who  have  a  tend- 
ency to  degenerate  into  casuals  may  be  spotted  and  if  possible  held 
to  steady  employment ;  and  must  be  able  to  sift  out  and  furnish 
employers  with  the  kind  of  men  they  want.  It  must  dovetail  the 
industries  of  each  locaUty  so  as  to  use  every  man  in  the  locahty  as 
steadily  as  possible  in  that  locality. 

"To  accomplish  these  manifold  purposes  we  must  have  a  national 
system  of  employment  offices,  with  adequate  branch  offices  and  a 

1  "A  Clearing  House  for  Labor,"  D.  D.  Lescohier,  in  The  Atlantic  Monthly, 
June,  1918,  pp.  779  f. 


THE  LABOR  MARKET  BEFORE  THE   WAR  l6l 

clearance  system  for  transferring  and  splitting  up  orders  among  the 
ofl&ces.  .  .  . 

"This  clearing-house  system,  if  it  were  combined  with  a  monopoly 
of  the  labor  market,  would  enable  the  pubUc  employment  ofl&ces  to 
check  labor  migration  by  always  finding  the  nearest  man  who  was 
competent  to  fill  the  position.  We  should  not  then  have  men  leaving 
Chicago  to  fill  jobs  in  St.  Louis  at  the  same  time  that  men  are  leaving 
St.  Louis  to  fill  the  same  kind  of  jobs  in  Chicago.  The  pressure 
would  be  put  on  men  to  make  them  remain  where  they  are,  instead 
of  to  cause  them  to  move.  Within  a  big  labor  market  hke  New  York 
or  Chicago  tens  of  thousands  of  jobs  would  be  filled  annually  by  local 
men  which  are  now  fiUed  by  outsiders ;  tens  of  thousands  of  men  kept 
at  home  who  are  now  emigrating  to  other  locaUties. 

"The  effect  which  such  a  system  of  offices  might  have  upon  labor 
turnover  is  even  more  important.  That  portion  of  the  labor  force 
which  is  most  frequently  changing  jobs  would  soon  be  recorded  in  the 
files  of  the  employment  offices.  A  glance  at  a  workman's  card  would 
show  his  history  —  whether  he  was  a  casual,  an  irregular  laborer,  or 
normally  a  steady  man.  It  would  show  the  kind  of  work  he  has 
followed.  Any  local  oflfice  desiring  further  information  concerning  a 
certain  man  could  quickly  get  it  by  telephoning  or  telegraphing  other 
offices  in  which  he  was  registered.  The  sifting  of  men  and  their 
individual  treatment  would  become  a  practical  possibihty  instead  of  a 
theoretical  ideal.     The  oflSces  could  use  pressure  to  hold  a  man  steady. 

"The  record  of  employers  would  be  equally  useful.  Those  plants 
which  revealed  excessive  turnover  could  be  easily  sifted  out,  and  the 
matter  brought  home  to  the  attention  of  their  managers.  By  per- 
sonal interview,  bvilletins,  and  correspondence  the  oflfices  could  call 
to  the  employers'  attention  the  causes  of  excessive  turnover,  its 
cost  and  its  treatment.  The  criticism  of  workmen  against  individual 
firms  could  be  brought  to  the  employer  and  the  faults  corrected. 

"But  most  important  of  all  the  advantages  are  two  —  that  the 
market  for  labor  would  be  centralized,  and  that  those  in  charge  would 
be  interested  in  serving  the  needs  of  the  employer  and  the  employee 
rather  than  in  personal  profit.  Centralization  in  the  labor  market 
has  the  same  advantage  that  centrahzation  in  any  market  has.  The 
buyer  and  seller  have  the  maximum  opportunity  of  getting  in  contact 
with  some  one  with  whom  they  can  do  business.  At  present,  with  a 
large  number  of  unrelated  employment  offices  operating  in  the  same 
town,  —  state,  federal,  commercial,  philanthropic,  trade  union,  and 

M 


l62  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

the  rest,  —  the  employer  who  wants  a  certain  kind  of  man  frequently 
places  his  order  in  one  office  while  the  employee  who  seeks  that  kind 
of  work  files  his  application  in  another.  The  two  fail  to  meet. 
With  a  single,  coordinated  system  of  oflfices,  the  two  will  come  together 
in  every  instance. 

"An  employment  system  run  for  profit  will  never  give  either 
our  industries,  our  workers,  or  the  nation  sound  service.  The  profits 
of  the  employment  agent  come  at  so  much  per  head.  The  more  heads, 
the  more  dollars.  The  greater  the  turnover,  the  larger  the  profits.  The 
interests  of  the  laborer  demand  a  steady  job.  The  interests  of  the 
employment  agent  are  exactly  the  opposite :  the  more  men  he  sends 
out,  the  greater  the  number  of  fees.  Private  agencies  are  daily 
shipping  men  by  the  thousands  whom  they  know  will  not  stick.  Fre- 
quently they  know  that  the  man's  real  intention  is  to  jump  the  job 
he  is  sent  to  and  go  to  some  nearby  work.  But  what's  the  diflference  ? 
Large  turnover  means  large  fees,  and  large  fees  are  the  object. 

"The  state  and  municipal  offices  as  heretofore  managed  in  this 
country  have  in  most  cases  (not  in  all)  developed  a  similar  motive 
favoring  turnover.  In  their  case  it  is  unconscious.  They  measure 
their  efficiency  by  the  cost  per  head  to  the  state  of  the  men  sent  out. 
They  brag  that  it  has  cost  the  state  but  30,  or  25,  or  19  cents  per  man 
sent  out,  as  compared  with  the  two-dollar  fee  collected  from  workmen 
by  the  private  agencies.  Since  most  of  the  state  and  municipal 
agencies  have  a  set  budget,  say  five  or  ten  thousand  dollars  per 
year,  approximately  all  of  which  they  spend,  their  average  cost  is 
lowered  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  men  sent  out  while  spending 
the  appropriation.  The  larger  the  business,  the  smaller  the  average 
cost  per  job  filled,  and  the  better  the  showing.  The  natural  result 
is  an  emphasis  on  the  number  of  men  sent  out  rather  than  on  the 
quality  of  service  rendered.  Instead  of  studying  their  local  market,  to 
develop  pohcies  that  will  give  the  local  workers  the  maximum  con- 
tinuity of  employment  and  local  employers  the  steadiest  possible 
labor  force,  their  effort  has  been  concentrated  upon  getting  orders 
for  jobs  vacated,  and  men  to  fill  them.  They  have  made  no  effective 
effort  to  decrease  labor  turnover,  and  if  they  do  they  will  impair  their 
showing  before  their  legislative  bodies  by  running  up  a  higher  per- 
capita  cost  for  placement.  Cheapness  rather  than  quaUty  has  been 
the  criterion  thus  far  applied  to  their  service.  And  it  is  the  criterion 
that  will  continue  to  be  applied  until  we  estabhsh  a  comprehensive 
system  of  employment  offices,  in  charge  of  men  who  understand  the 


THE  LABOR  MARKET   BEFORE  THE   WAR  1 63 

employment  problem  and  are  technical  experts  in  dealing  with  it, 
and  who  are  independent  of  the  annual  and  biennial  criticism  of  local 
legislative  bodies,  not  conversant  with  the  problems  being  worked 
out.  It  is  only  under  such  conditions  that  the  employment  organi- 
zation can  attack  and  solve  the  vital  problem  of  our  labor  market."  ^ 

1  "  A  Clearing  House  for  Labor,"  D.  D.  Lescohier,  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  June, 
1918. 


CHAPTER  VII 

DEVELOPMENT  OF  PUBLIC    EMPLOYMENT   ORGANIZATION 
BEFORE   THE    WAR 

One  cannot  understand  the  forces  which  brought  the  United 
States  Employment  Service  into  existence  during  the  war 
and  determined  the  type  of  its  organization  and  pohcies,  unless 
one  is  famihar  with  the  development  of  public  employment 
offices,  federal,  state,  and  municipal,  before  the  war.  We  will 
therefore  present,  as  briefly  as  possible,  the  outstanding  char- 
acteristics of  the  public  employment  exchanges  which  preceded 
the  war. 

The  first  public  employment  exchanges  of  a  permanent 
character  in  the  United  States  were  estabHshed  in  1890  by  Ohio 
in  five  cities  of  the  state.  California  had  a  labor  exchange  in 
San  Francisco  from  April,  1868,  to  April,  1872,  which  was  sup- 
ported for  a  few  months  by  private  subscription  and  then  by 
funds  appropriated  by  the  legislature.  But  it  passed  into  pri- 
vate hands  in  April,  1872.^  The  oflSces  were  desired  by  or- 
ganized labor  but  opened  with  the  discouraging  handicap  of 
opposition  from  some  employers,  who  looked  upon  them  as 
agencies  favorable  to  labor,  and  indifference  and  skepticism 
on  the  part  of  others,  who  saw  no  need  for  them  and  had  no 
confidence  in  any  public  office  because  of  past  experience  with 
pontics  and  politicians.  This  handicap  has  remained  with  the 
pubUc  employment  ofi&ces,  state,  municipal,  and  federal,  down 
to  the  present  time.^    A  majority  of  the  employers  of  the  coim- 

'  The  detailed  history  of  this  early  state  labor  exchange  will  be  found  in  "A 
Histor>'  of  California  Labor  Legislation,"  Lucile  Eaves,  University  of  Cahfornia 
Publications  in  Economics,  Vol.  11,  August  23,  1910,  pp.  337-341. 

'  The  British  offices  have  encountered  the  same  opposition.  Cf.  The  British 
System  of  Labor  Exchanges,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  No. 
206,  p.  8. 

164 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  PUBLIC  EMPLOYMENT  165 

try  have  been  either  hostile,  indifferent,  or  contemptuous. 
Some  of  them  have  been  unable  to  see  any  need  for  such  ofiSces 
or  have  scouted  the  idea  that  they  could  become  efficient. 
A  minority  have  realized  that  public  offices  would  not  furnish 
men  without  some  regard  for  the  men's  interests,  and  have 
preferred  to  do  business  with  private  offices  that  would  look 
upon  labor  as  a  commodity.  These  employers,  though  rela- 
tively few  in  number,  have  hired  large  numbers  of  laborers 
through  the  private  offices,  and  like  their  way  of  doing  business. 

This  opposition  and  indifference  of  employers  must  be  kept 
in  mind  while  reading  this  chapter  and  Chapter  IX.  It  partly 
explains  the  slow  development  of  public  employment  offices 
in  the  United  States,  the  niggardliness  of  legislative  bodies, 
the  inefficient  personnel  which  manned  so  many  offices.  The 
failure  of  employers  to  recognize  the  offices  and  interest  them- 
selves in  them  caused  many  state  and  municipal  offices  to  become 
"dumping  grounds  for  labor  politicians"  who  lacked  the  capac- 
ity, the  preparation,  and  the  vision  for  the  work.  No  public 
employment  system  can  be  a  success  unless  the  employers  and  the 
workers  have  a  mutual  interest,  a  mutual  sense  of  ownership, 
a  mutual  pride  and  confidence  in  it.  This  is  the  essential,  the 
fundamental  problem  to  be  solved  in  organizing  the  American 
employment  service.^ 

Twelve  public  offices  were  established  between  1890  and  1900 
and  fifteen  more  between  1900  and  1907.  Widespread  unem- 
ployment in  1907-08,  following  the  panic  of  1907,  and  an 
increasing  public  realization  of  the  evils  connected  with  fee- 
charging  employment  agencies,  caused  a  vigorous  demand  in 
many  parts  of  the  country  for  adequate  public  employment 
offices  during  1908-09.  Seven  new  offices  were  established 
in  1907,  nine  in  190S,  and  four  in  1909.  But  the  public's 
memory  is  erratic.  The  experiences  of  1907-08  were  soon 
forgotten.  Only  six  offices  were  added  between  1909  and  1913. 
The  panic  of  1914  renewed  the  agitation.     In  the  next  three 

*  Cf.  Chapter,  X,  XI ;  also  "Policies  and  Methods  of  Employrmnt  Agencies 
Maintained  by  Employers'  Associations,"  A.  J.  Allen,  Bulletin  QQZ,  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  pp.  52  fif. 


1 66  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

years  forty  ofiEices  were  added,  making  a  total  of  ninety-six  in 
the  country.' 

The  agitation  for  public  employment  offices  before  the  war 
arose  largely  out  of  the  evils  of  unemployment.-  Each  time 
that  industrial  revulsions  threw  unusual  numbers  of  people  out 
of  work,  there  was  a  demand  for  public  employment  offices  as 
means  of  relief.  Certain  public  officials  and  other  persons 
familiar  with  the  abuses  perpetrated  by  fee-charging  agencies 
saw  the  need  of  substituting  public  offices  for  these  commercial 
ones.^  A  few  perceived  the  need  for  an  organized  labor  market 
and  that  employment  work  can  be  efficiently  done  only  by  a 
centralized  employment  system.^  It  is  interesting,  in  the  light 
of  recent  developments  on  the  subject  of  employment,  to  find 
Frank  J.  Warne  arguing  before  the  New  York  Commission  on 
Unemployment  in  191 1  that  there  is  no  problem  of  employment 
of  which  the  state  should  take  cognizance  except  the  problem 
raised  by  those  who  are  unable  to  take  care  of  themselves  dur- 
ing unemployment.^ 

*  "Public  Employment  OfBces  in  the  United  States,"  Hemdon,  Bulletin  241, 
United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 

*  Cf.  Preface,  Bulletin  iq2,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics;  also  "Is  a 
National  Bureau  of  Employment  Desirable,"  Jacob  Lightner,  Bulletin  220,  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  p.  28;  "The  Struggle  against  Unemployment," 
C.  R.  Henderson,  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  May,  1914,  p.  2Q4;  "Progress 
of  the  Pubhc  Employment  Bureaus,"  Henry  G.  Hodges,  The  Annals,  January,  1917, 
p.  91 ;  "A  Federal  Labor  Reserve  Board  for  the  Unemployed,"  Wm.  M.  Leiserson, 
The  Annals,  January,  1917,  p.  103. 

'  Report  on  Conditions  and  Management  of  Public  Employment  Offices  in  the 
United  States,  Charles  B.  Barnes,  Bulletin  iq2.  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor, 
Statistics.  History  of  offices  to  1914;  "The  Movement  for  Public  Labor  Ex- 
changes," Wm.   M.    Leiserson,   Journal  of  Political  Economy,  July,  1915,  p.  7oj. 

*  An  interesting  picture  of  the  development  of  American  thought  on  the  subject 
of  pubHc  employment  offices  can  be  obtained  by  a  comparison  of  two  articles  written 
by  Dr.  Edward  T.  Devine  in  1909  and  1919.  The  evolution  of  his  thought  epito- 
mizes the  changes  which  have  occurred  in  the  views  of  thousands  in  the  last  decade. 
In  an  article  entitled  "Employment  Bureau  for  the  People  of  New  York  City," 
The  Annals,  March,  1909,  he  shows  why  he  does  not  believe  that  emplojTiient  ex- 
changes can  be  operated  successfully  "by  any  branch  of  the  Federal  Government." 
In  The  Survey,  April,  1919,  under  the  heading  "The  United  States  Employment  Serv- 
ice, an  Analysis  and  a  Forecast,"  he  reveals  his  enthusiasm  in  the  possibiUties  of 
service  of  an  adequate  federal  employment  organization. 

'  Third  Report,  New  York  Commission  Employers'  Liabihty  and  Unemploy- 
ment, pp.  174-176. 


DEVELOPMENT   OF  PUBLIC   EMPLOYMENT  1 67 

Two  new  influences  began  to  affect  the  situation  about  1910. 
The  nation  began  to  realize  the  evil  of  excessive  labor  turn- 
over and  this  directed  attention  to  a  comprehensive  system  of 
employment  offices  as  a  means  of  relieving  labor  turnover. 
About  the  same  time  public  employment  officials  and  economists 
began  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  employment  offices 
should  not  be  looked  upon  as  rehef  agencies  but  as  a  permanent 
part  of  our  business  machinery  with  the  continuing  function  of 
finding  men  to  fill  the  places  in  industry  which  become  vacant 
from  time  to  time  and  of  finding  work  for  the  wage  earners  who 
become  idle  from  time  to  time.  Before  1907  the  employment 
agency  was  thought  of  as  a  means  of  relieving  the  miseries  of 
unemployed  workers.  After  19 10  it  began  to  be  conceived  as  a 
piece  of  social  machinery  which  has  as  great  responsibilities  to 
the  employer  as  to  the  workman. 

The  formation  of  the  American  Association  of  Public  Employ- 
ment Offices  in  1913  did  much  to  clarify  this  idea.^  It  directed 
the  attention  of  employment  offices  to  the  fact  that  they  could 
not  serve  the  needs  of  either  the  employee  or  the  employer  effi- 
ciently unless  they  served  the  interests  of  the  opposite  party 
efficiently.  It  tended  to  put  the  employment  office  in  a  neutral 
position  as  between  the  employers  and  the  employed,  and  to 
emphasize  service  rather  than  relief.  Equally  important,  its 
work  constituted  one  of  the  first  organized  efforts  to  educate 
the  nation  to  the  kind  of  employment  organization  needed  for 
efficient  labor  placement.^  It  is  both  remarkable  and  interest- 
ing to  note  that  the  discussions  of  this  association  were  one  of 
the  first  places  in  which  the  shortcomings  of  the  state  and  munic- 
ipal offices  were  emphasized.  These  men  saw  and  called  atten- 
tion to  the  inadequacies  and  inefficiencies  of  their  own  offices. 
They  saw  and  declared  that  the  task  was  beyond  the  powers 
of  their  organizations ;   saw  that  their  offices  were  not  meeting 

•  Compare,  for  example,  the  discussions  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Association 
as  reported  in  Bulletins  igz  and  220  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics. 

»Cf.  Annual  Proceedings,  Bulletins  192  and  220  of  the  United  States  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics.  The  proceedings  of  the  1918  meeting,  which  have  not  yet  come 
from  the  press,  will  reveal  this  tendency  in  even  more  constructive  plans. 


1 68  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

the  country's  needs;   and  pointed  the  nation  toward  the  kind 
of  an  organization  needed.^ 

The  Commissioner  of  Labor  of  Minnesota  reveals  the  coun- 
try's developing  conception  of  the  employment  problem  in  his 
1913-14  biennial  report  i^ 

1  The  Commissioner  of  Labor  for  Minnesota  furnished  an  interesting  illustration 
of  this  attitude  in  his  report  for  191 3-14.     He  says  of  his  own  system  of  ofiBces : 

"We  are  frank  to  state  that  our  state  offices  have  in  the  past  been  as  open  to 
criticism  as  the  private  offices,  though  their  fault  has  been  a  failure  to  take  full 
advantage  of  their  opportunity  of  service  and  not,  as  in  the  case  of  the  private  ofiBces, 
dishonorable  practices.  They  have  been  inefficient.  A  careful  investigation  of  the 
State  offices  made  during  the  past  year  by  this  department  has  uncovered  their 
various  defects  and  we  have  perfected  a  scheme  of  reorganization  that  will,  we  believe, 
make  the  offices  a  credit  to  the  state  and  a  source  of  widespread  benefit.  This 
plan  cannot  be  carried  out  unless  a  state  superintendent  of  the  offices  is 
provided. 

"The  offices  have  catered  altogether  too  much  to  casual  labor  in  the  past.  A 
considerable  proportion  of  those  who  apply  for  work  have  been  the  casual  laborers 
and  riff-raff  of  the  cities,  many  of  them  unsteady  and  almost  '  down  and  out.'  They 
are  the  sort  of  men  who  work  only  when  circumstances  force  them  to  and  who  are 
looking  for  short  jobs,  not  for  steady  work.  Mingled  with  these,  there  have  been  a 
sprinkhng  of  the  better  types  of  laborers;  particularly  at  the  Duluth  office,  which 
sends  out  more  men  to  'permanent'  jobs  {i.e.,  jobs  lasting  weeks  or  months,  rather 
than  hours  or  a  day  or  two)  than  either  of  the  other  offices.  Neither  have  the 
employers  who  have  patronized  the  offices  been,  on  the  whole,  the  class  looking  for 
'  permanent '  employees  but  those  looking  for  '  handy-men '  for  odd  jobs.  Occasionally 
a  manufacturer  or  contractor  or  other  employer  has  come  looking  for  regular  em- 
ployees, but  on  the  whole  these  have  patronized  the  private  agencies  except  when 
looking  for  men  for  a  day  or  two's  work  or  when  the  private  offices  could  not  fill 
their  orders.  The  major  portion  of  the  employers  who  have  patronized  the  offices 
have  been  looking  for  help  for  from  a  few  hours  to  two  or  three  days,  and  the  minority 
have  offered  steady  work. 

"The  fundamental  failure  of  the  offices  thus  far  has  therefore  been  in  not  securing 
the  patronage  of  the  better  classes  of  either  employees  or  employers  and  in  catering  to 
casual  labor.  This  has  not  been  the  policy  of  the  offices,  but  has  resulted  from  the 
fact  that  there  has  been  no  one  on  whom  the  responsibiUty  has  rested  to  go  out  and 
build  up  business  connections  with  those  not  accustomed  to  patronize  the  offices. 
In  other  words,  the  offices  have  lacked  proper  advertising.  They  have  also  lacked 
proper  internal  business  organization  and  proper  record  systems.  But  we  beUeve 
that  we  now  understand  what  is  necessary  to  be  done  in  order  to  make  them  highly 
efficient  business  offices  that  will  so  organize  the  Minnesota  labor  market  as  to 
reduce  imemployment,  decrease  the  suffering  of  the  imemployed,  and  enable  em- 
ployers to  get  men  more  quickly  and  satisfactorily.  The  carrjdng  out  of  the  detailed 
plans  now  prepared  depends  fundamentally  upon  the  legislature  providing  a  state 
superintendent  and  giving  the  department  power  to  license  and  adequately  regulate 
the  private  employment  offices." 

'  Introduction,  p.  9. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  PUBLIC  EMPLOYMENT  169 

"The  time  has  come  in  the  development  of  our  state  when  we  must 
face  the  problem  of  regulating  employment  and  providing  some 
efficient  organization  of  the  labor  market  which  will  bring  the  un- 
employed man  and  the  employer  seeking  help  into  touch  with  each 
other.  There  are  at  all  times  of  the  year  men  and  women  out  of 
employment  and  employers  seeking  help,  and  in  the  present  dis- 
organized state  of  the  labor  market  both  labor  and  capital  lie  idle 
when  there  is  in  reality  a  demand  for  their  services  if  they  only  knew 
where  the  demand  was.  Some  employers  are  letting  out  men  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year  while  others  are  hiring,  and  there  is  needed  a 
system  of  labor  exchanges,  that  will  bring  the  supply  and  the  demand 
together.  Private  employment  agencies,  some  conducted  for  profit 
and  some  of  a  charitable  character,  have  endeavored  to  fill  the  need, 
but  their  work  has  been  on  the  whole  a  failure,  as  far  as  the  best 
interests  of  the  workman  and  of  the  average  employer  are  concerned. 
In  the  first  place  they  have  not  conducted  the  work  properly,  and  in 
the  second  place  the  distribution  of  labor  can  be  efficiently  carried  on 
only  by  an  organization  that  has  a  monopoly  of  the  whole  field. 
Private  individuals  who  conduct  employment  offices  do  so  for  personal 
gain,  except  in  the  case  of  the  few  charitable  agencies  which  are,  in 
the  total,  of  negligible  importance.  The  private  agencies  try  to 
carry  on  their  business  in  the  most  profitable  manner  possible,  and 
the  opportunity  of  profit  rather  than  the  desire  to  serve  the  public 
needs  is  the  paramount  stimulus  of  their  activity.  Grafting  of  various 
kinds,  exorbitant  fees,  falsehoods,  trickery,  and  bullying  of  workmen, 
the  shipping  of  men  to  remote  places  where  no  work  exists  or  where  the 
conditions  are  not  as  represented  by  the  agent,  have  all  been  profitable 
and  have  occurred  so  frequently  in  every  state  in  the  union  as  to  be 
justly  called  characteristic  of  their  activities.  These  wrongs  have 
been  just  as  common  in  our  own  state  as  anywhere  and  have  been 
discovered  by  this  department  in  hundreds  of  cases  which  have  been 
investigated  during  the  last  few  years  and  upon  which  detailed  reports 
are  now  on  file  among  our  records.  Ultimately  the  state  will  prob- 
ably be  compelled  to  assume  entire  control  of  the  distribution  of 
labor  and  to  do  away  with  the  private  agencies.  For  the  time  being 
the  two  pressing  necessities  are  the  enactment  of  a  law  giving  the 
labor  department  power  to  strictly  regulate  the  private  agencies  and 
the  creation  of  a  superintendent  of  public  employment  offices  who  may 
develop  the  state  offices  so  that  they  can  take  over  the  major  portion 
of  the  work  of  distributing^  labor. 


lyo  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

"Even  if  the  private  agencies  did  not  stoop  to  unfair  and  dis- 
honorable practices  it  is  apparent  upon  a  Uttle  reflection  that  the 
fundamental  need  in  the  organization  of  the  labor  market  —  a 
central  clearing  house  where  every  demand  for  work  can  be  brought 
into  touch  with  its  corresponding  demand  for  help  —  cannot  be 
provided  by  the  private  agencies.  There  should  be  one  central 
clearing  house  with  which  every  local  labor  agency  would  be  affiliated 
and  to  which  every  local  agency  would  send  every  unsatisfied  demand 
for  labor  or  for  help,  and  which  could  shift  orders  from  one  local 
agency  to  another  and  thus  give  every  applicant  the  highest  possible 
number  of  chances  of  having  his  needs  supplied.  The  larger  the 
number  of  offices  in  existence  (unless  they  are  parts  of  a  unified  system) 
the  more  disorganized  the  labor  market  is  and  the  greater  the  chances 
are  that  when  a  man  applies  for  a  given  kind  of  work  he  will  not  get 
his  job  because  the  employer  offering  that  kind  of  work  has  filed  his 
application  at  some  other  agency.  Within  each  state  there  should  be 
a  single  system  of  employment  offices  to  which  all  offers  of  employment 
and  aU  requests  for  work  would  be  brought,  and  through  which  each 
employer  and  each  workman  would  have  the  maximum  opportunity 
of  having  his  needs  supplied.  These  state  systems  should  be  and  in 
time  will  be,  coordinated  into  a  national  system  of  employment  offices 
supervised  by  a  central  office  and  assist  in  the  interstate  shipment  of 
labor." 

The  American  Association  for  Labor  Legislation  did  much 
to  clarify  the  thought  of  the  nation  on  the  employment  ques- 
tion. Its  first  National  Conference  on  Unemployment  in  New 
York  City,  February  27,  1914,^  represented  a  long  step  toward 
intelligent  grappling  with  the  employment  question.  It  em- 
phasized the  irregularity  of  employment  in  America  and  the 
inadequacy  of  our  employment  machinery,  considered  the  Eng- 
lish and  German  methods  of  employment  organization,  and 
gave  some  attention  to  unemployment  insurance.  The  associa- 
tion's second  conference  on  unemployment,  at  Philadelphia,  on 
December  28-29,  1914,  was  a  constructive  study  of  the  existing 
or  possible  agencies  which  could  be  used  for  the  prevention  or 
relief  of  unemployment.^ 

1  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  American  Labor  Legislation  Review, 
May,  1914. 

'  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  1915. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF  PUBLIC   EMPLOYMENT  171 

These  discussions,  able  as  they  were,  were  nevertheless  dis- 
tinctly one-sided.  They  looked  upon  the  question  of  labor 
market  organization  as  a  labor  question  rather  than  as  an  in- 
dustrial question.  The  problem  before  the  meetings  was  the 
relief  of  unemployment,  not  the  organization  of  the  labor  market 
to  meet  both  the  employer's  need  for  men  and  the  worker's  need 
for  employment.  They  did  not  sense  the  fact,  at  least  clearly, 
that  steadiness  of  employment  is  at  least  one  labor  problem 
in  which  the  employers'  and  the  wage  earners'  interests  are 
identical. 

The  discussions  in  the  Annals,  on  the  other  hand,  have  tended 
to  emphasize  the  employers'  side  of  the  problem,  and  have 
neglected  a  study  of  the  employment  problem  in  its  broader 
aspects.  Most  of  the  papers  found  there  accept  the  existing 
labor  supply  and  labor  demand  conditions,  and  center  around 
the  question,  "  What  is  the  most  efficient  way  for  an  individual 
employer  to  secure  and  select  labor? "^  The  problem  of  na- 
tional labor  market  organization  is  hardly  touched,  and  is  given 
but  scant  treatment  even  in  the  AnnaVs  reconstruction  num- 
bers.2  But  the  emphasis  of  the  employers'  side  of  the  problem 
by  the  Annals  is  a  very  important  contribution  to  the  discussion 
of  employment  in  America.  It  has  saved  the  country,  to  a 
certain  extent,  from  looking  at  the  employment  question  as 
purely  a  wage  earner's  problem.  It  has  forced  the  nation  to 
take  into  account  the  industrial  aspect  of  labor  market  organi- 
zation, and  to  realize  that  the  plan  adopted  must  serve  the 
employer's  needs  as  well  as  the  worker's,  and  enjoy  his  confi- 
dence just  as  fully  as  it  does  the  confidence  of  the  employee. 

The  stale  offices  did  not  and  cannot  organize  the  labor  market. 
But  they  nevertheless  made  some  very  definite  contributions 
to  the  technique  of  public  employment  service.  The  Wis- 
consin exchanges,  or  ofiices,  emphasized  centralization.     Their 

*  "Personnel  and  Employment  Problems,"  Thr  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 
of  Political  and  Social  Science,  May,  1916;  "Stabilizing  Industrial  Employment," 
ibid..  May,  1917. 

^"A  Reronstniction  Labor  Policy,"  ibid.,  January,  1919;  "Industries  in  Re- 
adjustment," ibid.,  March,  1919. 


172  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

State  superintendent,  by  frequent  trips  to  their  several  offices, 
and  by  daily  reports  from  each  ofifice,  accomplished  a  coordi- 
nation of  the  work  in  the  state.  New  York,  Massachusetts, 
and  Ohio  worked  along  the  same  lines.  Ohio  developed  in  191 7 
the  most  complete  unification  of  its  offices  attained  by  any  of 
the  state  systems.  Its  twenty-two  exchanges  were  in  daily 
telephone  contact  with  a  central  or  clearing  office  at  Columbus, 
and  orders  and  men  were  transferred  from  one  exchange  to 
the  other  by  this  central  office. 

Wisconsin  also  contributed  two  other  ideas  of  much  impor- 
tance :  joint  financing  of  offices  by  the  state  and  the  local 
community  and  the  community  advisory  board.  It  encouraged 
cities  to  bear  part  of  the  expense  of  the  local  office,  thus  increas- 
ing the  annual  appropriations  for  the  offices  and  winning  local 
interest  and  support  as  can  be  done  in  no  other  way.  This  was 
followed  up  by  establishing  a  community  advisory  board  com- 
posed of  representatives  of  the  state,  the  municipality,  the 
employers,  and  labor  organizations.  This  advisory  board  was 
a  sort  of  board  of  directors  to  guide  the  policies  of  the  local 
office,  receive  criticisms  and  complaints,  and  (when  necessary) 
to  fight  its  battles  with  legislative  bodies.  These  boards, 
since  widely  used  in  other  states  and  by  the  federal  employ- 
ment service,  have  done  much  both  to  improve  the  efficiency 
of  the  public  offices  and  to  keep  the  confidence  of  both  the 
employers  and  employees  for  them.^  They  were  the  first 
definite  recognition  of  the  fact  that  employers  have  as  much 
at  stake  in  a  successful  public  employment  system  as  the 
workers. 

Massachusetts  was  one  of  the  pioneer  states  in  the  develop- 
ment of  specialized  departments  within  the  employment  office. 
She  early  recognized  at  Boston  the  need  for  the  separate  han- 
dling of  skilled  and  unskilled  workers,  of  juveniles,^  and  of  women. 

'  The  advisory  board,  first  used  in  Wisconsin,  as  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  learn, 
was  incorporated  into  the  British  employment  service  in  1917,  and  is  an  integral 
part  of  the  new  Canadian  employment  exchange  system.  They  were  also  rec- 
ommended for  public  oflBces  in  Austria. 

'  A  series  of  papers  on  the  relation  between  public  school  vocational  guidance, 
employment  office  vocational  guidance,  and  juvenile  placement  will  be  found  in 


DEVELOPMENT  OF   PUBLIC   EMPLOYMENT  173 

Massachusetts  also  has  the  distinction  of  working  out  a  record 
system  which  has  formed  the  basis  of  all  efficient  public  employ- 
ment records  in  the  United  States.  Vocational  direction  by 
employment  oflSces  and  the  use  of  interpreters  when  handling 
foreigners  were  early  features  of  the  Massachusetts  system. 
The  same  state  first  took  steps  to  effect  definite  relations  be- 
tween its  public  employment  ofl5ces  and  the  employment  man- 
agers of  industrial  establishments,  a  feature  of  public  employ- 
ment exchange  policy  which  must  be  emphasized  in  the  future.^ 
Public  employment  ojfices  can  accomplish  the  best  results  when 
working  in  intelligent  contact  with  such  employment  depart- 
ments. The  development  of  such  departments,  and  along  sound 
Unes,  is  one  of  the  serious  needs  of  the  American  employment 
situation.2 

The  National  Farm  Labor  Exchange,  a  loose  organization 
composed  of  state  employment  offices  and  of  representatives 
of  the  United  States  Departments  of  Agriculture  and  of  Labor, 
organized  in  the  winter  of  1914-15  and  meeting  annually 
at  Kansas  City,  attempts  to  coordinate  the  efforts  of  the  offices 
in  the  middle  west  to  meet  the  demand  for  seasonal  farm  labor, 
particularly  for  the  harvest.  It  has  no  administrative  powers 
or  functions  and  represents  simply  a  means  of  exchanging  in- 
formation and  effecting  personal  contact  between  the  officers 
in  the  several  states.  It  does  not  constitute  an  organization 
of  the  middle  west  labor  market  in  any  sense  of  the  term,  even 
for  harvest  purposes.  Each  officer  goes  home  to  meet  his 
o\\Ti  problems  as  best  he  can.  But  it  is  a  short  step  in  the  right 
direction.^ 

the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Association  of  Public  Employment  Offices  for 
1916,  in  Bulletin  220,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Cf.  also  "Juvenile 
Employment  Exchanges,"  Elsa  Neland,  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June, 

1915- 

>  See  Chapter  XII.  Cf.  also  testimony  of  Walter  Sears,  Final  Report,  In- 
dustrial Relations  Commission,  Vol.  II,  p.  1 275-1301. 

'  Cf.  "Public  Employment  Bureaus  and  Their  Relation  to  Managers  of  Employ- 
ment in  Industry,"  Hilda  Mulhauser,  The  Annals,  May,  1916,  p.  170. 

'  Cf .  National  Farm  Labor  Exchange,  Charles  McCafiFree,  Bulletin  iq2.  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  p.  117.  The  reader  can  get  a  vision  of  the 
problem  with  which  the  exchange  was  organized  to  deal  in  "  Plan  for  Gathering 


174  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

The  federal  government  made  its  first  efforts  in  employment 
service  under  a  law  of  1907  which  gave  the  Bureau  of  Immigra- 
tion and  Naturalization  power  "to  promote  a  beneficial  distri- 
bution of  aliens  admitted  into  the  United  States  among  the 
several  states  and  territories  desiring  immigration."  Little 
was  accomplished  under  this  law,  but  after  the  creation  of  the 
Department  of  Labor  on  March  4,  1913,  more  definite  efforts 
to  develop  an  employment  service  were  undertaken. 

The  country  was  now  divided  into  eighteen  (originally  six- 
teen) zones  with  employment  headquarters  in  each  zone,  manned 
by  an  immigration  inspector,  sometimes  styled  "superintendent 
of  employment."  Some  of  these  zones  had  branch  offices, 
but  neither  a  state's  size  nor  its  employment  needs  seemed  to 
determine  the  number  of  districts  or  offices  in  it.  Missouri 
comprised  two  districts  and  Pennsylvania  one,  while  Texas 
contained  three  districts  and  nine  branch  offices.  New  York 
state  had  but  one  branch  office  —  at  Buffalo.  The  state  of 
Washington  had  more  branches  than  there  were  main  head- 
quarters in  all  the  states  along  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  CaH- 
fornia  had  more  offices  than  all  of  the  states  drained  by  the 
Mississippi  River. 

It  is  only  by  courtesy  that  one  could  call  these  employment 
offices;  it  would  be  a  falsehood  to  speak  of  them  as  a  federal 
employment  system.  Their  methods  of  operation  violated 
most  of  the  canons  of  good  employment  practice,  and  they  made 
little  effort  really  to  serve  either  employers  or  employees  in 
general.  They  posted  notices  of  positions  open  in  such  public 
places  as  libraries  and  post  offices,  with  utter  disregard  of  the 
number  who  might  be  led  to  go  to  the  job,  and  equal  dis- 
regard as  to  whether  any  one  applied  for  it.  The  inexperience 
of  the  immigration  inspectors  in  employment  work,  their  in- 
ability to  use  the  telephone  and  telegraph  freely,  their  inad- 
equate office  forces  and  equipment,  and  the  small  number  of 
offices,  made  any  real  service  impossible. 

and  Distributing  Harvest  Hands  in  the  Grain  States,"  W.  G.  Ashton,  BuUetin  iq2. 
United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  p.  84,  and  in  the  United  States  Employ, 
ment  Service  Bulletins  during  191 8. 


DEVELOPMENT  OF   PUBLIC   EMPLOYMENT  175 

The  next  step  taken  in  the  development  of  this  pitiful  ^ 
federal  employment  service  was  to  make  every  post  office  an 
employment  office.  The  eagerness  with  which  this  suggestion 
was  received  by  thousands  of  people  is  a  striking  tribute  to 
American  ignorance  of  the  country's  employment  needs  and 
of  the  fact  that  employment  work,  properly  done,  is  a  profession. 
Post  office  clerks,  like  immigration  clerks,  have  other  duties; 
and  those  duties  are  their  main  interest.  To  ninety  per  cent 
of  them,  any  employment  functions  foisted  upon  them  would 
appear  a  useless  burden  to  be  disposed  of  as  easily  as  possible. 
Post  offices,  experience  has  shown,  can  be  efficiently  used  as  a 
means  for  directing  employers  and  employees  to  the  public 
employment  office,  but  not  as  placement  agencies.  Attempted 
codperation  with  the  Departments  of  Agriculture  and  of  the 
Interior  likewise  yielded  but  limited  practical  results.  Some 
of  the  federal  officials  were  so  concerned  about  who  would  get 
the  credit  for  what  was  done  that  they  never  got  to  the  work 
for  which  credit  was  sought.  Inter-department  jealousy  and 
suspicion  crippled  much  of  the  effort  at  cooperation. 

In  other  words,  the  vision  of  the  assistant  secretary  of  labor 
had  no  sound  basis.  Neither  the  organization  itself  nor  the 
personnel  of  that  organization  justified  his  hopes.  He  said  of 
this  federal  service :  ^ 

"By  statutory  implication,  therefore,  the  Bureau  of  Immigration, 
through  the  Division  of  Information,  has  become  an  appropriate  instru- 
mentality of  the  Department  of  Labor  for  promoting  the  welfare  of 
wage  earners  especially  with  reference  to  labor  distribution.  It  is  not 
at  all  improbable  that  the  Department  of  Labor  will  thereby  (by 
cooperation  with  the  post  office  and  Department  of  Agriculture)  be 
able  to  promote  labor  distribution  extensively  and  satisfactorily, 

*  The  reader  who  is  not  familiar  with  these  offices  can  get  an  illuminating  picture 
of  their  work  by  following  the  monthly  reports  of  it  in  The  Labor  Review,  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  from  1915  through  1917.  Their  total  place- 
ments for  the  six  years  ending  June  30,  were  3S,430,  of  whom  over  80  per  cent 
were  aUens.  Their  applications  for  work  averaged  from  four  to  six  times  the 
number  placed.  We  are  therefore  directing  the  reader  to  their  most  prosperous 
period,  1915-17. 

'  "Government  Intervention  in  Idleness."    The  Survey,  Vol.  34,  p.  270. 


176  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

that  public  lands  and  arid  lands  unclaimed  by  governmental  irrigation 
systems  may  be  utUized  in  aid  thereof,  that  farm  credit  and  farm 
marketing  projects  --Tnay  be  stimulated  by  its  further  promotion, 
and  that  agricultural  and  other  vocational  training  may  come  coopera- 
tively into  the  service  for  the  solving  of  employment  problems.  .  .  . 
"...  There  are  hopes  of  some  experimentation  with  plans  the 
Department  is  considering  on  a  scale  more  comprehensive  than  that 
of  wheat-harvesting,  for  establishing  annual  vacations  for  wage 
earners.  The  essential  theory  of  these  plans  is  that  aU  interests  could 
be  better  served  if  the  sporadic  demands  for  seasonal  work  of  various 
kinds  were  systematically  met  by  wage  earners  on  vacation." 


CHAPTER  VIII 
THE  WAR   AND   THE   EMPLOYMENT   MARKET 

The  war  forced  the  nation  to  attempt  the  organization  of 
the  labor  market,  by  destroying  the  labor  surpluses  on  which 
the  employers  had  depended. 

When  war  broke  out  in  Europe  in  1914,  its  immediate  effect 
upon  employment  in  America  was  disastrous. 

"All  along  the  Atlantic  coast  industry  and  commerce  were  dis- 
located ;  shipping  was  tied  up ;  men  found  that  the  war  had  taken 
away  their  work,  their  source  of  Uvclihood.  Their  number  was 
increased  by  the  sailors  from  interned  foreign  vessels.  Factories 
dependent  upon  European  trade  or  products  began  to  run  part  time 
and  then  stopped.  .  .  ."  "As  the  weeks  went  by  the  amount  and 
extent  of  unemployment  increased  throughout  the  country.  .  .  . 
Bread  lines  have  been  very  long  during  the  past  winter.  Women  as 
weU  as  men  have  been  in  those  bread  Hues."  ^ 

Dress  goods  manufacturers  found  their  business  dislocated 
by  inability  to  get  German  yarns.^  Canners  along  the  Dela- 
ware coast  had  to  shut  down.^  The  oil  trade  was  hard  hit.* 
The  dye  famine  paralyzed  colored  cloth  manufacture  but  stimu- 
lated white  goods.^  Steel  mills  had  to  retrench.^  Copper 
mines  stopped  production.''  The  cotton  growers  were  threat- 
ened with  ruin.^    Tanneries  were  closed  by  stoppage  of  hide 

*  Samuel  Gompers  in  The  Annals,  Vol.  LXI,  pp.  4-10,  September,  1915. 
'  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  .\ugust  12,  1914,  p.  7,  col.  i. 

'  Ibid.,  August  15,  1914,  p.  9,  col.  3,  and  August  13,  p.  i,  col.  6. 

*  Ibid.,  August  15,  1914,  p.  8,  col.  i,  and  .\ugust  14,  p.  8,  col.  3 ;  August  12,  p.  2, 
col.  3,  and  August  18,  p.  3,  col.  4. 

^  Ibid.,  August  IS,  p.  s,  col.  2,  and  August  17,  p.  7,  col.  4. 

*  Ibid.,  August  5,  1914,  P-  3i  col.  5;  August  12,  p.  5,  col.  3;  August  13,  p.  8, 
col.  5 ;  August  13,  p.  8,  col.  7 ;  August  14,  p.  8,  col.  7. 

''Ibid.,  August  s,  1914,  p.  3,  col.  4;  August  14,  p.  2,  col.  3. 
^  Ibid.,  August  3,  1914,  p.  8,  col.  2;   August  13,  p.  2,  col.  3;   August  14,  p.  i, 
col.  3;  August  14,  p.  I,  col.  7;  August  17,  p.  7,  col.  6. 
K  177 


178  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

importations.^  The  congestion  of  export  shipments  in  seaports 
because  of  disturbance  to  commerce  was  serious.^  Seventy 
thousand  employees  of  tin  plate  mills  were  idle  because  of  the 
mills'  inability  to  get  raw  material.^  On  August  7  the  New 
York  Journal  oj  Commerce  predicted  that  500,000  men  would 
be  out  of  work  in  the  Pittsburgh  district  if  the  war  lasted  a 
month/  On  August  19  the  Journal  stated  that  reports  of 
industrial  unemployment  were  "growing  decidedly  more 
numerous,"  ^  and  that  practically  all  lines  were  sharing  cur- 
tailment in  New  England.^  These  are  but  illustrations  of  the 
conditions  which  obtained  in  a  large  number  of  industries  or 
in  individual  localities  or  plants.  The  reasons  for  the  situation 
were  shown  by  Mr.  Johnson,  president  of  the  Baldwin  Locomo- 
tive Works : 

"When  the  war  broke  out  at  the  beginning  of  last  August,  the  first 
result  was  the  sudden  and  complete  paralysis  of  the  financial  fabric 
of  all  the  nations  of  the  world.  .  .  .  Not  only  in  our  own  country, 
but  everywhere,  the  cessation  of  financial  operations,  including  the 
closing  of  the  stock  exchanges,  occasioned  a  discontinuance  of  every- 
thing looking  to  new  business,  deprived  the  industries  of  their  markets, 
and  left  the  manufacturers  with  nothing  to  do  but  to  carry  out  so 
much  of  their  existing  contracts  as  were  not  affected  by  the  outbreak 
of  the  war.  Prior  to  the  war  a  condition  of  business  prostration 
had  already  existed.  .  .  .  Then  came  the  declaration  of  war,  which 
put  all  large  business  to  an  end.  We  discovered  not  only  that  financial 
operations  had  stopped,  but  our  merchants,  manufacturers,  and  ship- 
pers found  that,  because  of  our  dependence  upon  the  vessels  of  other 
nations,  the  means  of  continuing  our  foreign  commerce  was  gone." 
"Little  by  little  we  have  been  emerging  from  that  condition.  .  .  . 
The  belligerents  have  placed  with  us  contracts  for  vast  sums  of  war 
material.  This  has  established  an  activity  which  in  certain  Unes  of 
business  is  almost  feverish,  but  it  has  not  created  general  prosperity. 
Many  fines  of  business  .  .  .  have  not  yet  been  roused  from  their 
lethargy."  ' 

1  New  York  Journal  of  Commerce,  August  13,  p.  8,  col.  6. 

*  Ibid.,  August  4,  p.  9,  col.  2.  '  Ibid.,  August  8,  1914,  p.  8,  col.  7. 

*  Ibid.,  August  7,  1914,  P-  4,  col.  3.  '  Ibid.,  August  19,  1914,  p.  4,  col.  3. 

*  Ibid.,  August  19,  1914,  p.  2,  col.  5. 

'  Alba  B.  Johnson  in  The  Annals,  Vol.  LXI,  p.  i,  September  1915. 


THE  WAR  AND  THE   EMPLOYMENT  MARKET        179 

The  recovery  from  the  first  stagnation  began  soon  after  the 
war  started,  but  was  felt  only  in  certain  lines  of  production. 
The  powder  plants  began  to  increase  their  forces  early  in  August, 
1914.^  Orders  for  canned  goods  also  began  to  come  in.^  Manu- 
facturers of  some  kinds  of  paper  found  their  business  stimulated  ' 
although  other  lines  remained  quiet.  The  removal  of  foreign 
competition  benefited  glass  factories.'*  Shoe  manufacturers 
quickly  obtained  orders  for  soldiers'  shoes.^  Cotton  manu- 
factures recovered  under  the  assurance  that  English  competition 
would  be  reduced.  Gradually  industry  after  industry  obtained 
orders  for  products  for  Europe,  commerce  was  reopened,  and 
banking  institutions  readjusted  their  business.  The  withdrawal 
of  millions  of  European  workmen  from  production  caused 
Europe  to  draw  ever  more  heavily  upon  our  productive  capacity. 
The  decrease  in  immigration  to  America  stopped  the  further 
accumulation  of  laborers  on  our  soil. 

The  excessive  labor  surplus  of  1914-15  slowly  disappeared, 
and  employers  in  many  lines  were  complaining  of  a  real  or 
fancied  labor  shortage  when  the  spring  of  191 7  arrived.  Then 
America  entered  the  war.  Thousands  of  employers  were  imme- 
diately thrown  into  a  veritable  panic  at  the  prospect  of  losing 
to  the  army  and  navy  millions  of  experienced  men  of  all  grades, 
after  three  years  of  diminished  immigration. 

The  labor  shortage  which  they  anticipated  did  develop.^ 
During  191 7  there  was  some  shortage  in  men  of  special  qualities, 
but  no  shortage  in  the  gross  number  of  workers.  The  191 7 
shortage  was  not  so  severe  as  many  had  expected  it  to  be,  and 
represented  a  problem  only  in  specific  occupations.    The  panic 

1  New  York  Journal  oj  Commerce,  August  10,  1914,  p.  10,  col.  6. 

^  Ibid.,  August  4,  1914,  p.  8,  col.  5. 

^  Ihid.,  August  12,  1914,  p.  8,  col.  s;  also  August  13,  1914,  p.  8,  col.  2. 

*  Ibid.,  August  14,  1914,  p.  8,  col.  2.  ^  Ibid.,  August  14,  1914,  p.  9,  col.  6. 

•  Cf.  data  on  shortage  of  common  labor  in  Monthly  Labor  Review,  September, 
1918,  p.  300;  on  conditions  in  Ohio,  ibid.,  pp.  302-304 ;  the  Monthly  Labor  Market 
Bulletin  of  the  New  York  Department  of  Labor  during  igiS,  or  the  United  States 
Employment  Service  Bulletins  for  the  weeks  April  16,  May  7,  June  11,  1918,  and 
from  then  on  almost  every  bulletin,  especially  July  23,  August  6  and  20,  1918. 
The  Monthly  Labor  Review,  February,  1919,  pp.  131-133,  summarizes  the  labor 
demand  from  January,  1915,  to  December,  1918,  in  the  form  of  a  demand  curve. 


i8o 


THE   LABOR   MARKET 


Chart  VI.  —  The  War-Time  Labor  Market  in  Omo 


100.000 

95,000 

90,000 

85,000 

80,000 

75.,000 

70,000 

65,000 

60,000 

55,000 

50.000 

CC  45,000 

Ul 

^40.000 

Z3 

Z  35.000 

30,000 

25.000 

£0,000 

15,000 

10,000 

5^000 

0 


A- 

— 

— 

Total  Applications  /or  Wo 

rk 

8- 

—  Help  Wantedl     1     1     1 

— 

—'Female  Applications  for  Worll; 

— 

— 

— 

- 

It 

— 

i5[ 

lal 

;H 

3!p 

Wi 

nte 

d_ 

— 

/ 

r 

— 

— 

— 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

- 

7 

/ 

\ 

\ 
\ 

\ 

^ 

1 
1 

- 

- 

/ 

/ 

\ 

1 

1 

1,' 

1 

I 
1 
1 

1 
I 

\ 

1 

/ 
/ 

I 
1 

( 

j 

. 

A- 



M- 





1 

t 

1 
1 
I 

\ 

\ 

1 
1 
1 

1 

\ 

\ 

/ 

1 
1 

1 

v 

'*■*• 

-- 

/ 

' 

/ 

i^ 

^- 

/ 

\ 

/ 

1 

\ 

/ 

\ 

1 

\ 

J 

A 

1 

\ 

S, 

/ 

\ 

/ 

\ 

/ 

1 

\ 

\, 

/ 

^ 

I 

^ 

/ 

— 

— 

— 

V 

1 

— 

— 

S 

\ 

— 

\ 

/ 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

_ 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

— 

_ 

s 

— 

— 

-j; ' 

— 

— 

— 

/. 

N 

'"    '\ 

''' 

*», 

ii 

V 

,^ 

7 

"' 

\ 

/ 

^' 

— 

■*" 

■■" 

' 

\ 

, 

-» 

^*' 

/^ 

s 

D 

^ 

/ 

^ 

■^ 

- 

^ 

■^ 

/ 

-.-^'■C     COQEQ-nWE 


MONTH  ENDING 


MONTH  ENOINQ 
1918 

DATE 


MPNTH  ENDING 

JW9 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  EMPLOYMENT  MARKET   l8l 

into  which  the  employers  were  thrown  by  their  fear  of  labor 
shortage,  coupled  with  their  ability  to  shift  to  the  shoulders 
of  the  government  excessive  labor  costs  incurred  through  ab- 
normal wage  offers,  caused  a  struggle  among  employers  for 
labor  which  was  not  consistent  with  the  labor  supply  situation 
but  which  seriously  stimulated  labor  turnover.  The  curves 
presented  in  Chart  No.  VI  present  the  history  of  the  labor 
market  in  Ohio  during  the  war  period.^  The  data  for  the  curves 
were  taken  from  the  monthly  reports  of  the  Ohio  Employment 
Service.  Curves  B  and  D  show  the  fluctuation  of  employers' 
demands  for  help ;  A  and  C  show  the  fluctuation  of  employees' 
applications  for  work.  A  comparison  of  curves  A  and  B  shows 
that  the  number  of  wage  earners  applying  for  employment  was 
much  in  excess  of  the  number  sought  by  employers  during  191 7 
and  that  the  labor  shortage  did  not  begin  in  Ohio  until  about 
the  first  of  April,  1918.  From  May,  1918,  until  the  armistice 
was  signed  there  was  a  definite  shortage  of  labor.  Employers' 
applications  for  help  far  exceeded  workers'  applications  for 
employment  from  July  to  November.  The  steady  rise  of  the 
number  of  appHcations  for  work  during  this  period  in  spite  of 
the  rapid  absorption  of  labor  by  the  industries  is  due  to  the 
large  number  of  persons  from  states  farther  west  who  went  into 
Ohio  to  work  in  war  industries.  The  rapid  rise  of  employees' 
applications  after  the  signing  of  the  armistice  is  largely  due  to 
the  laying  off  of  large  numbers  who  were  then  thrown  upon  the 
labor  market.  The  curves  from  November,  1918,  to  February, 
1919,  show  a  steady  fall  in  employers'  demands  for  help  and  an 
accompanying  rise  of  employees'  demands  for  work ;  while  the 
revival  of  business  in  the  spring  of  191 9  is  clearly  seen  in  the  rise 
of  the  employers'  demand  curves  {B,  D)  in  February  and  March. 
Curves  D  and  C  show  the  demand  for  and  supply  of  women 
workers  during  the  war.  It  will  be  observed  that  there  was 
no  marked  increase  of  employers'  demands  for  women  workers 
until  March,  1918.  From  March,  1918,  to  March,  1919,  there 
was  a  much  stronger  demand  for  women  workers  than  before 

'  This  curve  was  drawn  by  Mclvin  Wagner,  a  student  at  the  University  of  Wis- 
consin, under  the  direction  of  L.  B.  Krueger,  Instructor  in  Statistics. 


1 82  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

the  war.  In  the  months  just  before  the  signing  of  the  armis- 
tice, employers  were  asking  for  more  than  twice  as  many 
women  workers  as  they  had  sought  during  191 7.  It  is  both 
interesting  and  significant  to  note  that  the  number  of  women 
seeking  industrial  employment  rose  as  steadily  as  the  call  for 
their  services  developed.  The  women  responded  quickly  and 
consistently  to  the  war-time  demand  for  them.  The  women 
who  responded  to  Ohio's  war-time  demand  were  probably  almost 
entirely  Ohio  citizens.  It  will  be  observed  that  the  same  sharp 
labor  surplus  developed  among  women  workers  in  Ohio  after 
the  armistice  as  developed  among  the  general  labor  force. 

The  disorganization  which  had  characterized  our  labor  market 
during  peace  times  degenerated  into  veritable  chaos  during 
the  early  part  of  the  war  period.  Employers  stole  men  from  each 
other;  labor  scouts  infested  the  centers  of  labor  distribution; 
private  employment  agencies  reaped  a  harvest. 

"A  trainload  of  workers  came  from  a  western  point  to  a  new  War 
Department  construction  job  on  the  seaboard.  The  Employment 
Service  brought  them.  The  War  Department  paid  the  bills.  The 
job  is  vitally  important  and  must  be  rushed  to  the  limit.  Like 
many  other  jobs  now  being  done  by  the  Government  the  hves  of 
many  of  our  men  and  the  time  when  our  fuU  strength  can  be  employed 
in  the  War  depend  in  part  upon  it.  But  bright  and  early  next  morning 
the  agent  of  a  firm  which  has  a  Government  contract  and  a  plant  a 
few  miles  away  came  over,  offered  the  men  three  cents  an  hoiu: 
advance,  and  took  the  whole  trainload  away. 

"A  very  enterprising  labor  agent  in  Tennessee  showed  his  appre- 
ciation of  the  situation  by  sending,  with  a  trainload  of  workmen 
dispatched  to  a  Government  contractor,  a  special  agent,  with  in- 
structions to  deliver  the  men,  take  the  contractor's  receipt,  and  then 
bring  them  back  to  be  shipped  elsewhere  for  another  commission. 

"Hundreds  of  other  instances  occur  —  some  scandalous,  some 
traitorous,  and  others  merely  humorous,  Uke  the  case  of  the  zealous 
but  absent-minded  young  labor  agent  at  Norfolk,  who  not  long  ago 
succeeded,  by  raising  their  wages,  in  hiring  two  men  he  met  on  the 
street,  away  from  his  own  firm."  ^ 

1  "Destructive  Labor  Recruiting,"  C.  T.  Clayton,  Bulletin  247,  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  p.  56. 


THE   WAR   AND   THE   EMPLOYMENT   MARKET        183 

J.  B.  Densmore,  Director  General  of  the  United  States 
Employment  Service,  described  the  situation  in  these  words: 
"Thousands  of  private  employment  agents  were  continually 
luring  men  from  one  job  to  another.  Men  employed  on  govern- 
ment work  in  Buffalo  were  transported  to  another  government 
job  in  San  Francisco,  only  a  week  later  to  be  carried  back  to 
Boston.  This  anarchy  of  employment  served  the  welfare  of 
none.  Workers  and  their  families  suffered  from  being  ever  on 
the  move.  Employers  were  injured  because  of  the  inescapable 
waste  due  to  an  extravagant  labor  turnover.  The  nation  itself 
was  hurt  because  under  these  circumstances  human  energies 
which  might  have  been  directed  toward  victory  were  vainly  ex- 
pended in  a  futile  search  for  the  achievement  most  desired  by 
the  government."^ 

Experienced  employment  men  were  not  infected  with  this 
fear  of  labor  shortage,  but  it  was  months  before  the  business 
world  would  listen  to  them.  These  men  knew  that  America 
could  man  her  war  industries  if  proper  machinery  for  recruit- 
ing and  distributing  labor  was  provided  by  the  government, 
and  the  reckless  competition  of  employers  for  men  was  checked. 
There  was  no  time  during  the  war  when  there  was  a  shortage 
in  the  quantity  of  labor  in  America.  There  was  a  real  short- 
age of  men  of  quality.  It  was  difficult  to  get  an  adequate  supply 
of  certain  classes  of  skilled  workmen ;  although  other  kinds, 
like  carpenters,  were  a  drug  on  the  market. 

The  clear-headed  interpretation  of  the  situation  by  some  of 
these  experienced  state  employment  officials  is  well  illustrated 
by  the  statement  which  Mr.  Charles  B.  Barnes,  superintendent 
of  the  New  York  Public  Employment  Offices,  made  to  the  New 
York  Industrial  Commission  in  the  spring  of  191 7.  His  proph- 
ecy was  fulfilled  by  the  events  of  1918.     He  said  : 

"Already  thereisacry  of  labor  shortage  which  is  not  justified.  .  .  . 
We  are  beginning  to  talk  of  the  necessity  for  the  use  of  woman  and 

'  The  Annals,  January,  igig,  p.  32.  The  same  sort  of  conditions  obtained  in 
England  during  the  early  months  of  the  war  but  the  British  employment  service 
soon  obtained  control  of  the  situation.  Cf.  "Lessons  from  English  War  Ex- 
perience in  the  Employment  of  Labor,"  M.  B.  Hammond,  American  Economic 
Review,  March,  1918,  Supplement,  p.  149. 


l84  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

child  labor,  for  which  there  is  as  yet  no  valid  need.  In  reality,  for  a 
long  time  there  has  been  a  great  loss  of  man  power  in  this  state 
because  of  unemployment.  It  is  well  known  that  up  until  about  two 
years  ago,  an  advertisement  offering  any  position  with  fairly  attractive 
wages,  would  bring  to  the  factory  or  other  work-place  a  large  crowd  of 
eager  applicants.  It  is  also  well  known  that  from  all  the  work- 
places in  every  industrial  community  there  were  turned  away  every 
morning  hundreds  of  men  willing  and  eager  to  work.  This  meant  a 
great  loss  of  man  power  to  the  country,  for  these  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  workers  lost  anywhere  from  three  days  to  three  months  in 
finding  a  suitable  job.  The  total  loss  of  days'  work,  counted  in  man 
power,  is  startling.  This  loss  has  been  passed  over  without  notice 
save  when  it  was  emphasized  by  bread  lines  and  soup  kitchens. 
With  the  expectant  need  of  man  power,  we  are  now  beginning  to 
realize  what  we  were  wasting  and  are  commencing  to  take  up  the 
slack.  The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  there  are  in  this  country  enough 
human  beings  potentially  capable  of  doing  all  the  work  required,  and 
that,  too,  mthout  materially  increasing  the  number  of  women  workers. 
But  there  is  an  actual  shortage  of  the  kind  of  technically  trained 
workers  for  which  the  changes  in  industry  are  causing  demand. 
There  is  only  one  remedy  for  this  apparent  shortage,  and  that  is, 
the  training  of  unskilled  or  semi-skilled  workers  in  such  manner  as 
will  fit  them  to  do  the  new  work  called  into  existence  as  a  result  of  the 
war.  We  cannot  escape  the  doing  of  this  training,  and  the  sooner  we 
face  the  problem,  the  more  productive  the  country  will  be.  We  are 
teaching  thousands  of  men  how  to  shoot  a  gun  and  handle  a  bayonet. 
It  is  just  as  desirable  in  this  emergency  to  teach  a  man  how  to 
handle  a  tool  and  a  machine.  Thousands  of  the  potential  soldiers 
are  just  as  unfamiliar  with  the  rifle  and  the  bayonet  as  are  thousands 
of  workers  with  the  tool  and  the  machine.  There  are  enough 
human  beings  for  both  fields  of  training,  but  we  must  exercise  as 
much  care  in  the  training  and  preparation  for  one  field  as  for  the 
other. 

"If  this  industrial  training  is  not  given  now,  and  the  continuance  of 
the  war  compels  us  to  have  a  second  or  a  third  draft,  then  we  may 
be  forced  to  ask  for  priority  in  labor  and  the  stoppage  of  aU  so-called 
non-essential  industries  because  we  lack  men  of  requisite  skill  to 
carry  them  on."  ^ 

'  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York  Industrial  Commission,  1917,  New  York  State 
Department  of  Labor,  pp.  208-209. 


THE  WAR  AND  THE  EMPLOYMENT  MARKET   iSs 

But  the  government's  policies  during  the  early  months  of 
the  war  were  not  encouraging.  The  Navy  Department  struggled 
with  the  ordnance  for  men  to  get  out  its  products ;  the  canton- 
ments competed  with  the  shipbuilding ;  each  government  de- 
partment fought  the  other  in  the  labor  market.  It  did  not  take 
any  department  long  to  discover  that  there  was  no  market 
machinery  upon  which  they  could  depend  for  labor  recruiting. 
Disreputable  private  agencies  received  orders  for  men  for  gov- 
ernment work,  and  the  abuses  connected  with  such  agencies 
brought  disrepute  on  the  government.  The  government  saw 
that  it  had  to  develop  an  organized  labor  market  or  fail  in  its 
military-economic  program.  As  a  result,  the  government  under- 
took the  establishment  of  the  United  States  Employment  Ser- 
vice. 


CHAPTER  DC 
THE  UNITED   STATES   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE 

The  United  States  Employment  Service,  created  by  the  De- 
partment of  Labor  during  the  war  to  assist  "in  the  present  emer- 
gency," is  the  only  attempt  which  has  been  made  to  estabHsh 
an  adequate  Federal  Employment  Service  in  the  United  States. 
It  was  the  first  step  of  our  government  toward  a  labor  market 
organization  equivalent  to  that  of  England ;  ^  but  was  created 
and  set  into  operation  under  conditions  that  made  carefulness 
and  economy  of  administration  impossible.  Its  first  year's  work 
does  not  constitute  any  test  at  all  of  the  cost  or  the  capabilities 
of  such  a  service.  It  was  established  for  the  definite  purpose 
of  securing  labor  for  employers  in  industries  producing  commodi- 
ties of  military  importance.  Military  considerations,  rather 
than  industrial,  controlled  its  policies  and  its  purse  strings. 
Many  considerations  which  would  have  exercised  a  controlling 
influence  on  the  Service  in  normal  times  were  properly  neglected 
in  a  war  Service.  Furthermore,  it  did  not  remain  in  operation 
on  its  war  time  basis  long  enough  to  have  opportunity  to 
correct  its  obvious  faults. 

The  creation  of  the  United  States  Employment  Service  was 
made  necessary  by  the  complete  failure  of  the  federal  oflEices 
operated  by  the  Immigration  Bureau  to  meet  the  nation's  needs 
during  191 7.  These  oflEices,  few  in  number,  without  policies  or 
funds,  and  without  either  a  chief  or  a  personnel  trained  for 
employment  work,  were  corks  on  a  stormy  sea.  Month  by 
month  the  chaos  of  the  employment  market  grew  worse.  Only 
the  heroic  efforts  of  the  individual  states  of  the  northwest,^ 

^  See  Chapter  X. 

'  Ohio,  Minnesota,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Illinois,  California,  and  other  important 
food-producing  states  worked  out  state  plans  which  furnished,  in  the  total,  a  very 
large  amount  of  labor  to  agriculture. 

186 


THE   UNITED   STATES   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE       187 

aided  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  in  many  cases,  and  of 
the  federal  employment  office  at  Kansas  City,  saved  the  grain 
states  from  a  disastrous  harvest  labor  shortage.  Ohio  made 
rapid  progress  in  handling  her  entire  labor  problem  through 
a  comprehensive  state  employment  service.  These  cases  but 
threw  the  general  situation  in  our  industries  into  stronger 
relief.  Government  departments  competed  with  each  other 
for  labor ;  ordnance  stole  men  from  shipbuilding ;  shipbuilding 
from  aviation ;  shells  from  powder.  Turnover  increased  by 
leaps  and  bounds.  On  January  3,  1918,  the  Secretary  of  Labor 
ordered  the  separation  of  the  Employment  Service  from  the 
Bureau  of  Immigration  and  "its  expansion  and  operation"  as 
the  United  States  Employment  Service  under  the  direction  of 
John  B.  Densmore  of  Montana,  formerly  solicitor  of  the  De- 
partment of  Labor.  Mr.  Densmore  had  to  face  the  task  "  of 
building  a  machine  and  operating  it  at  the  same  time."  The 
Service  had  to  begin  to  function  immediately  even  though  it 
had  neither  organization,  equipment,  nor  staff.  It  was  expected 
to  deliver  results  in  thirty  days  that  in  normal  times  it  would 
have  been  given  years  to  attain. 

The  first  plan  of  organization  adopted  provided  for  two  Assist- 
ant Directors  —  one  in  charge  of  field  work  and  quasi-official 
bodies  and  the  other  in  charge  of  administrative  work  —  divisions 
of  Information,  Women,  Investigation,  Statistics,  Service 
Officers,  and  Farm  Service ;  and  the  continuation  of  the  Public 
Service  Reserve  and  Boys'  Working  Reserve.  The  country 
was  divided  into  thirteen  administrative  districts  on  February 
23,  each  consisting  of  from  two  to  five  states,  with  a  District 
Superintendent  in  each  district  and  a  State  Director  of  Employ- 
ment in  each  state. 

The  organization  was  again  modified  on  March  i  by  an  order 
of  February  22,  by  the  elimination  of  one  of  the  two  Assistant 
Directors,  provided  for  in  the  original  plan ;  the  creation  of  a 
Policies  and  Planning  Board,  composed  of  the  chiefs  of  the  dif- 
ferent divisions ;  the  creation  of  a  Division  of  Training  of  Person- 
nel, and  the  elimination  of  the  Division  of  Investigations.  The 
Divisions  of  Information  and  Administration  were  combined 


l88  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

and  a  clearance  function  added,  in  a  new  Division  of  Informa- 
tion, Administration,  and  Clearance.  This  division  constituted 
the  center  or  main  body  of  the  Employment  Service.  It  had 
charge  of  the  collection  of  information  upon  conditions  of 
demand  and  supply  in  the  labor  market,  of  actual  placement 
work,  and  of  the  shifting  of  labor  supplies  from  state  to  state.^ 

It  had  become  clear  to  the  Service,  after  a  few  months  of 
experience,  that  the  secret  of  success  was  going  to  be  found  in 
a  "centralized  administration  at  Washington  and  decentralized 
operation  with  the  states  as  the  unit."  A  committee  of  advisors 
who  were  summoned  to  Washington  by  the  Director  General 
for  the  purpose,  after  a  series  of  conferences  with  employment 
experts  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  worked  out  a  third  impor- 
tant reorganization.  The  District  Superintendents  had  proved 
to  be  a  "fifth  wheel,"  which  obstructed  rather  than  increased 
the  efficiency  of  the  organization,^  while  the  necessity  of  clear- 
ing through  the  district  ofiices  retarded  rather  than  assisted 
in  the  clearance  of  orders  between  states.  This  reorganization 
provided  for  "the  gradual  elimination  of  the  district  superin- 
tendencies;  the  centering  of  responsibility  for  the  field  organi- 
zation on  the  federal  directors  of  employment  for  the  states ; 
the  institution  of  uniform  methods  of  oflSce  operation;  and 
the  realignment  of  the  administrative  work  of  the  Director 
General's  office  at  Washington  into  five  divisions,  each  in  charge 
of  a  director."  ^ 

The  five  new  divisions  were :  (i)  Control,  (2)  Field  Organiza- 
tion, (3)  Clearance,  (4)  Personnel,  and  (5)  Information.    The 

1  Annual  Report  of  the  Director  General  of  the  United  States  Employment 
Service,  June,  1918,  p.  8.  A  brief  description  by  C.  F.  Stoddard  of  the  Service 
at  this  stage  of  its  development  may  be  found  in  Monthly  Labor  Review,  May,  1918, 
p.  191. 

2  The  coimtry's  experience  with  this  feature  of  the  Employment  Service  is  an 
interesting  illustration  of  the  way  that  good  "paper  plans"  often  fail  in  practice. 
The  author,  in  common  with  most  pre-war  advocates  of  a  federal  service,  believed 
in  the  district  system  of  administration.  But  less  than  sixty  days'  experience  with 
the  district  plan  thoroughly  convinced  him  that  the  sooner  the  districts  were  elim- 
inated the  better  for  the  service. 

'  Annual  Report  of  the  Director  General  of  the  United  States  Employment 
Service,  June,  1918,  p.  35. 


THE   UNITED   STATES   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE        189 

Control  Division  had  charge  of  all  central  office  administrative 
work,  such  as  general  correspondence,  reports,  supplies,  and 
finances.  The  Field  Organization  Division's  function  was  to 
create,  perfect,  and  operate  "an  efficient  system  of  employ- 
ment offices  in  each  state,"  to  supervise  the  Public  Service 
Reserve  and  Boys'  Working  Reserve,^  and  to  create  special 
facilities  for  meeting  special  problems.  It  was  the  division 
of  administration  of  employment  offices.  The  Reserves  would, 
of  course,  not  be  continued  in  peace  times,  but  the  other  func- 
tions are  of  a  permanent  character.  The  work  of  the  Clearance 
Division  was  closely  related.  Its  function  was  to  distribute 
requests  for  labor  among  the  states;  to  obtain  reports  from 
each  state  showing  its  unfilled  labor  demands,  and  other  reports 
showing  its  types  of  unemployed  labor,  and  to  notify  state 
directors  who  needed  men  of  certain  types  what  states  could 
meet  their  needs;  and  also  to  arrange  transportation  details 
for  the  movement  of  men  from  one  state  to  another.  The 
Personnel  Division,  as  its  name  implies,  was  in  charge  of  the 
selection,  training,  and  development  of  the  officers  and  employes 
of  the  Employment  Service.  It  was  the  personal  efficiency 
department  of  the  Service.  The  Information  Division  pub- 
lished the  United  States  Employment  Service  Bulletin  and  had 
charge  of  all  publicity  work  for  the  Service. 

This  form  of  organization  produced  a  higher  degree  of  cen- 
tralization of  authority  at  Washington,  and  a  more  logical  con- 
sohdation  of  functions.  It  did  not  involve,  however,  the  ter- 
mination of  specialized  sections  within  these  general  adminis- 
trative divisions.  The  Field  Organization  Division,  for  in- 
stance, could  continue  its  farm  labor  section,  unskilled  labor 
section,  or  any  other  specialized  subsection  that  experience 
showed  to  be  necessary. 

The  Service  expanded  in  two  ways :  by  the  rapid  establish- 
ment of  new  offices  and  by  the  absorption  of  existing  state  and 

i'  ^United  States  Boys'  Working  Reserve,  Monthly  Labor  Review,  June,  1917; 
Boy  Soldiers  of  the  Soil,  W.  P.  McGuire,  The  Forum,  July,  1918;  The  Boy,  the 
War  and  the  Harrow,  H.  D.  Fisher,  The  Survey,  March  30,  1918;  Boy's  Work- 
ing Reserve,  Manual  Training,  April,  1918;  Organization  and  Purpose,  School 
Review,  February,  1918. 


190  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

municipal  offices,  either  by  agreements  of  cooperation  or  by 
assuming  actual  control  over  them.  Between  January  3  and 
April  23,  1918,  72  new  offices  were  opened.  On  May  7  this 
total  had  reached  280;  by  May  21,  350;  by  August  27,  560; 
and  by  October  21,  832  offices.  Twice  as  many  offices  were 
established  in  nine  months  as  were  opened  in  England  during 
the  first  four  years  of  their  national  employment  system. 
This  was  "approximately  ten  times  the  number  functioning 
when  the  Employment  Service  was  recognized  as  a  distinct 
unit  in  the  Department  of  Labor"  ^  in  January. 

Strenuous  efforts  were  made  to  utilize  agencies  outside  of  the 
Service.  An  announcement  of  February  18,  that  98,000  third- 
and  fourth-class  postmasters  and  rural  carriers  had  been  made 
''labor  agents"  of  the  Service  says:  "These  new  agents  .  .  . 
together  with  2000  agents  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture 
whose  services  will  be  available,  furnish  connecting  links  be- 
tween the  farms  and  the  sources  of  farm  labor  supply.  They 
place  the  United  States  Employment  Service  in  direct  touch 
with  virtually  every  farmer  in  the  United  States."  ^ 

Efforts  were  also  made  to  utilize  the  newspapers  of  the  coun- 
try. On  April  19,  1918,  "letters  were  addressed  to  daily  news- 
papers in  cities  of  20,000  or  over,  asking  their  aid  by  establish- 
ing newspaper  farm  labor  agencies,  each  paper  accepting  the 
proposition  to  devote  not  less  than  four  inches  of  space  in  each 
issue  to  the  local  needs  of  farmers  for  help.  ...  At  the  present 
time  (June  30)  200  daily  newspapers  are  serving  with  the  Farm 
Service  Division  under  this  plan,  with  the  result  that  in  a  great 
many  instances  local  labor  shortages  have  been  materially 
relieved."  ^ 

The  manufacturers  of  motion  picture  fihns,  the  National 
Grange  and  other  agricultural  organizations,  the  councils  of 
defense,  and  farmers'  telephone  lines  were  all  used  to  further 
promote  the  farm  labor  end  of  the  work.  Cooperation  was 
also  effected  with  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture, 

*  United  States  Employment  Service  Bulletin  No.  jg,  October  29,  1918. 

'^  Ibid.,  February  iS,  1918,  p.  i. 

'  Statement  of  Director  General,  Annual  Report,  1918,  p.  19. 


THE   UNITED   STATES   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE        19I 

which  rendered  notable  assistance  through  its  farm  labor 
specialists  and  county  agricultural  agents. 

The  recruiting  of  labor  was  aided  by  two  organizations 
created  earher  in  the  war  than  the  Employment  Service;  the 
United  States  Public  Service  Reserve  and  the  Boys'  Working 
Reserve.  They  were  made  an  integral  part  of  the  Service  when 
it  was  established.  The  Public  Service  Reserve  was  created 
to  enroll  workers  with  special  types  of  skill  who  would  be  will- 
ing to  leave  their  positions  to  accept  war  work  if  called.  It 
was,  in  other  words,  a  civil  enlistment  for  war  service.  The 
Boys'  Working  Reserve  was  of  the  same  type,  but  operated 
among  boys,  most  of  whom  were  in  school. 

Both  of  these  organizations  had  necessarily  been  doing  place- 
ment work.  When  calls  came  to  them  for  certain  types  of  war 
workers,  they  looked  over  their  records  and  assigned  specific 
volunteers  to  the  employer.  The  creation  of  the  Employment 
service  immediately  produced  a  duplication  of  machinery,  and 
these  organizations  were  therefore  absorbed  to  a  large  degree 
by  the  Employment  Service  and  became  recruiting  branches 
of  it.  The  employment  office  could  reach  the  unemployed 
workers,  while  these  recruiting  organizations  could  make  avail- 
able for  war  work  employed  workers  engaged  in  non-essential 
industries.  It  was  their  function  "to  seek  out  workers  in  less 
essential  occupations  and  through  the  employment  offices  to 
distribute  them  at  the  points  where  they  were  most  vitally 
needed  to  bring  about  maximum  production."  ^ 

"The  enrollment  agents  of  the  Public  Service  Reserve  aid 
in  the  recruiting  of  labor  for  the  employment  districts  in  which 
they  operate.  They  act  also  as  agents  of  the  community  labor 
boards  in  stimulating  and  supervising  the  moving  of  workers 
from  less  essential  to  more  essential  occupations;  in  moving 
male  workers  into  war  work  from  occupations  that  can  be 
readily  filled  by  women,  and  in  making  industrial  and  man- 
power surveys.  The  enrollment  agents  are  also  used  by  the 
Employment  Service  to  register  in  advance  men  in  specified 

'  Statement  of  Director  General,  Annual  Report,  1918,  p.  9. 


192 


THE  LABOR  MARKET 


trades  for  which  it  is  known  from  experience  there  will  be  demand 
in  the  war  emergency."  ^ 

The  difficulties  encountered  by  the  Service  throughout  the 
year  191 8  can  hardly  be  over-estimated.  During  the  early 
months  of  the  year,  when  the  Service  was  straining  every  nerve 
to  get  an  adequate  complement  of  offices  in  operation,  the 
labor  situation  was  steadily  growing  worse.  Employers  were 
recklessly  bidding  against  each  other  for  men.  Labor  scouts 
infested  every  large  manufacturing  center. 

"  We  never  know  when  the  whistle  blows  at  night  how  many  men 
we  will  have  in  the  morning," 

said  the  employment  manager  of  a  large  steel  concern  to  the 
writer  one  day  in  the  spring  of  1918. 

"  When  our  men  down  go  town  in  the  evening  labor  scouts  are  lay- 
ing for  them  on  every  comer  to  steal  them  from  us.  And  our  scouts 
are  stealing  from  the  other  fellow.  If  we  didn't  play  the  game  we 
would  have  to  shut  down." 

These  problems  had  to  be  met  under  conditions  as  difficult 
as  could  be  imagined.  It  was  a  period  in  which  much  of  the 
time  and  strength  of  the  experienced  men  in  the  Service  had  to 
be  devoted  to  the  establishment  of  new  offices,  the  selection 
and  training  of  personnel,  and  the  determination  of  the  form  of 
organization  and  policies  of  the  Service.  Several  partial  reor- 
ganizations had  to  be  effected  within  the  Service,  contacts  with 
employers,  commercial  associations,  and  labor  unions  had  to  be 
effected,  the  details  of  the  Service  routine  had  to  be  worked  out, 
and  the  relative  justice  of  the  claims  of  various  localities  and 
industries  for  such  labor  as  was  available  had  to  be  determined. 
The  community  labor  boards  had  not  yet  begun  to  function. 
The  war  crisis  had  passed  before  the  Service  had  had  time  to 
thoroughly  solve  its  initial  organization  problems.  Our  lack 
of  labor  market  preparedness  before  the  war  made  it  impossible 
for  us  to  develop  an  adequately  equipped  service  quickly  enough 
to  meet  the  war-time  labor  emergency. 

»  Annual  Report  of  the  Director  General,  1918,  p.  9. 


THE   UNITED   STATES   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE        193 

It  was  impossible,  under  the  circumstances,  for  the  Service 
to  accomphsh  all  that  was  expected  of  it.  And  relatively  few, 
if  any,  of  the  officers  and  friends  of  the  Service  fully  realized 
the  obstacles  which  they  had  to  overcome. 

The  Employment  Service  stated  in  May  ^  that  the  railways 
in  the  west  and  the  shipyards  were  going  to  use  the  Service 
exclusively.  But  they  did  not  do  it.  On  June  4  and  1 1  the  Bulle- 
tin declared  that  the  harbor  workers  would  all  be  hired  through 
the  Service.  But  it  was  not  until  President  Wilson  announced 
on  June  17  that  on  and  after  August  i,  1918,  all  employers 
"engaged  wholly  or  partly  in  war  work,  whose  maximum  force, 
including  skilled  and  unskilled  laborers,  exceeds  100,"  were 
required  to  hire  all  of  their  common  labor  through  the  United 
States  Employment  Service,  that  employers  began  to  seriously 
depend  upon  the  Service  and  to  discontinue  competitive  solicita- 
tion .2 

The  backwardness  of  employers  in  making  use  of  the  Service 
was  due  to  a  number  of  causes.  Thousands  hesitated  about 
committing  their  interests  to  an  employment  service  operated 
by  the  Department  of  Labor,  which  they  considered  "an  ad- 
junct of  the  American  Federation  of  Labor."  Others  lacked 
faith  in  the  ability  of  the  Service  to  find  them  the  men  they 
needed.  They  did  not  believe  that  the  government  could 
efficiently  provide  men  for  industry.  Many  of  them  looked 
upon  all  employment  exchanges  as  places  to  which  an  employer 
should  resort  only  in  his  last  extremity  and  with  no  expectation 
of  finding  any  good  workman  on  the  list.  Others  went  into  the 
local  office  of  the  Service  and  found  it  manned  with  inexperi- 
enced help  who  had  little  conception  of  what  they  were  doing. 
Still  others  placed  orders  and  lost  confidence  if  the  offices  failed 
to  "make  good"  on  the  first  order. 

The  Service  soon  found  that  one  of  its  first  tasks,  once  its  or- 
ganization was  established,  was  the  winning  of  the  employer's 
confidence.     It  had  to  "sell  him"  the  idea  of  patronizing  an 

1  United  States  Employment  Service  Bulletin,  May  14,  igi8,  p.  i. 
^  The  proclamation  and  plan  will  be  foiind  in  Monthly  Labor  Review,  September, 
1918,  pp.  28s,  298. 
o 


194  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

employment  office,  sell  him  the  idea  that  it  was  cheaper  and 
more  efficient  to  have  all  employers  hiring  their  labor  through 
a  centralized  employment  agency. 

The  workers  had  their  doubts,  too.  Employment  offices 
had  so  long  been  associated  in  their  minds  with  semi-charitable 
relief  in  times  of  unemployment,  and  with  the  gang  of  casuals 
who  loaf  around  such  offices,  that  many  of  them  at  first  hesitated 
about  going  to  them  for  work.  As  Dr.  Edward  T.  Devine, 
of  Columbia  University,  has  put  it  —  they  had  long  thought 
of  employment  offices  as  the  place  where  a  workman  goes  "after 
he  has  tried  all  other  ways  of  getting  a  job  and  been  unsuccess- 
ful." Many  of  them  also  feared  that  the  offices  might  become 
a  means  of  furnishing  strike  breakers. 

One  of  the  most  effective  steps  to  overcome  these  prejudices 
was  the  establishment  of  advisory  boards,  similar  to  those  which 
had  proved  so  helpful  in  Wisconsin  and  Ohio.  On  July  9,  1918, 
the  Service  announced  the  policy  of  establishing  state  advisory 
boards,  community  labor  boards  and  state  organization  com- 
mittees throughout  the  country  to  assist  in  the  management 
of  the  Service. 

The  State  Advisory  Boards  consisted  of  two  employers, 
two  representatives  of  the  workers,  and  the  state  director  of 
employment,  who  was  ex-officio  chairman.  The  Public  Service 
Reserve  director  was  soon  added  to  the  board  to  help  guide 
its  labor  recruiting  policies.  Their  functions  were  important. 
They  were  responsible,  to  a  certain  extent,  for  the  quality  of 
the  personnel  in  the  state  and  local  offices  in  their  respective 
states.  Though  the  Secretary  of  Labor  retained  control  over 
all  appointments  and  removals,  their  recommendations  were 
obtained  before  he  acted.  It  was  their  continuing  function 
to  act  as  a  sort  of  board  of  directors  to  determine  matters  of 
general  policy  in  the  Service  within  the  state.  It  was  this 
board  which  apportioned  the  government's  demands  for  labor 
for  work  outside  the  state  among  the  several  localities  of  the 
state.  They  determined  what  localities  in  the  state  should  furnish 
labor  for  other  localities  and  which  localities  had  to  be  suppHed. 
All  questions  of  general  policy  came  within  their  jurisdiction. 


THE   UNITED    STATES   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE       1 95 

The  State  Advisory  Board  was  represented  in  each  community 
where  an  office  was  estabhshed  by  a  Community  Labor  Board. 
These  consisted  at  first  of  a  representative  of  the  employers, 
a  representative  of  the  workers,  and  a  representative  of  the 
Employment  Service,  but  two  women  members  were  soon  added, 
one  representing  the  employers  and  the  other  the  employees. 
These  boards  performed  the  same  service  for  their  localities 
that  the  State  Advisory  Board  performed  for  the  state.  Appeals 
from  their  decisions  went  to  the  State  Advisory  Board,  and 
from  there  to  the  Director  General  of  the  Service  and  the  War 
Labor  Pohcies  Board. 

A  thousand  boards  had  been  organized  by  September,  1918, 
and  on  October  29,  there  were  1386  in  operation.  The  impor- 
tance of  the  Community  Labor  Boards  in  the  management  of 
the  Employment  Service  is  well  stated  in  the  Bulletin  of  Sep- 
tember 3.^ 

"The  community  labor  boards  of  the  United  States  Employment 
Service  have  a  task  and  responsibihty  no  less  great  than  that  of  the 
draft  boards  under  the  Selective-Service  Act.  In  some  respects 
the  work  of  the  former  is  infinitely  more  difficult ;  for  the  draft 
boards  have  definite  instructions  to  guide  them  and  are  backed  by 
military  and  statutory  authority,  while  the  community  labor  boards 
have  little  but  the  general  priority  classifications  of  the  War  Industries 
Board  and  their  knowledge  of  local  conditions  to  steer  them,  and  they 
cannot  enforce  their  decisions.  .  .  .  The  boards  themselves  must 
show  tact  and  unquestioned  fairness.  Their  work  may  meet  with 
opposition  in  some  instances,  but  this  will  be  due  in  ninety-nine  out 
of  one  hundred  cases  to  misunderstanding  by  employers  of  the 
boards'  functions  or  their  unawakened  realization  of  the  labor  situa- 
tion and  the  necessity  for  finding  men  for  war  work  at  any  cost." 

The  creation  of  the  Community  Labor  Boards  was  the 
most  promising  step  taken  by  the  Service  to  bring  both 
the  employer  and  the  employee  to  an  understanding  of  the 
necessity  for  labor  exchanges  and  their  proper  place  in  the 
nation's  economic  hfe.    The  Boards  struck  at  the  very  roots 

*  United  States  Employment  Service  Bulletin,  September  3,  1918,  p.  6. 


196  THE   LABOR  MARKET 

of  that  prejudice  against  public  employment  oflSces  which  has 
been  so  serious  an  obstacle  to  their  development.  They  dis- 
covered and  in  turn  began  to  emphasize  to  the  public  the  fact 
that  employment  work  takes  a  high  degree  of  skill.  They  were 
a  barrier  to  the  poUtician's  desire  to  use  the  offices  as  "plums" 
for  his  least  efficient  hangers  on.  They  compelled  the  employ- 
ment offices  to  assume  that  neutrality  between  capital  and 
labor  which  is  so  essential  to  their  success. 

Unfortunately,  the  Community  Labor  Boards  did  not  get 
into  operation  until  the  Service  had  been  operating  eight  or 
ten  months,  and  only  a  couple  of  months  before  the  armis- 
tice was  signed.  They  had  hardly  started  to  function  when 
the  war  ended.  Their  personnel  had  not  yet  fully  comprehended 
their  task  when  the  labor  situation  began  to  change  from  labor 
shortage  to  labor  surplus.  In  many  communities  they  did  a 
great  deal  during  the  winter  months  of  1918-19  to  mitigate 
the  unemployment  due  to  the  sudden  termination  of  the  war 
and  helped  thousands  of  soldiers  to  find  their  way  back  into 
civil  life. 

Appraisal  of  the  Service 

The  natural  difficulties  in  the  situation  —  the  existing  chaos 
in  the  labor  market,  the  acute  shortage  of  skilled  labor  under 
which  industry  was  laboring,  the  high  labor  turnover,  the 
hesitancy  of  both  employers  and  employees  to  use  the  Service 
—  were  aggravated  by  weaknesses  within  the  Service  itself. 
These  were  of  three  main  types:  the  inexperience  of  its  per- 
sonnel; the  excessive  number  of  chiefs,  directors,  and  other 
administrative  heads,  and  the  overlapping  or  lack  of  coordina- 
tion of  their  functions ;  and  vacillation  of  policy.  One  who  did 
business  with  the  Service  received  an  impression  that  the  men 
in  the  Service  were  feverishly  anxious  to  accomplish  its  task 
but  that  either  they  or  their  organization  were  inadequate  to 
do  it. 

It  is  easy  to  see  the  shortcomings  of  the  Service.  It  was 
easy  during  the  war.  But  one  must  realize  how  nearly  impos- 
sible was  the  task  laid  upon  the  shoulders  of  Mr.  Densmore  and 


THE  UNITED   STATES   EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE       197 

his  associates.^  An  inexperienced  personnel  was  unavoidable, 
since  there  did  not  exist  a  sufficient  body  of  experienced  employ- 
ment men  in  the  country  to  man  the  federal  offices,  and  there 
was  no  time  to  train  any.  An  excessive  number  of  directors 
and  specialists  in  the  central  offices  was  almost  inevitable  be- 
cause in  the  war  emergency  haste  was  the  essential  thing  and 
it  was  quicker  to  hire  another  speciaUst  for  each  task  than  to 
coordinate  work.  In  the  end  they  were  tripping  over  each  other. 
Vacillation  of  policy  naturally  accompanied  the  effort  of  an 
inexperienced  chief  to  utilize  the  advice  of  all  of  the  "experts," 
many  of  whom  held  inconsistent  views.  Haste  was  again  the 
temptation  which  prevented  Mr.  Densmore  from  taking  time 
to  choose  his  way  carefully  and  certainly.  The  comment  of  a 
pubUcist  in  July,  1918,  was  a  just  appraisal  of  the  situation: 

"The  task  looks  impossible.  (But)  ...  by  common  consent, 
central  labor  recruiting  has  become  an  imperative  national  necessity 
.  .  .  without  it  .  .  .  our  national  existence  is  threatened."  ^ 

But  in  spite  of  all  of  its  difficulties  and  weaknesses  the  Em- 
ployment Service  accomplished  a  remarkable  result  in  labor 
placement.  During  the  year  1918  it  received  orders  for  8,799,798 
people;    registered    3,212,581    applicants   for   work;    referred 

1  The  disciminating  criticisms  of  Dr.  E.  T.  Devine,  in  the  April  5,  1919,  number  of 
The  Survey  are  worthy  of  the  reader's  attention.  He  says  in  part:  "It  cannot  be 
denied  —  and  no  one  seems  disposed  to  deny  —  that  there  has  been  inefficiency  in 
many  offices,  and  that  there  have  been  many  employees  whose  '  separation '  from  the 
Service  will  be  no  loss  to  it.  There  has  been  no  strong,  consistent  directing  policy, 
but  too  much  shifting  in  organization  and  in  division  of  responsibility  between 
Washington  and  the  states.  The  staff  of  experts  and  speciahsts  at  national  head- 
quarters has  undoubtedly  been  larger  than  necessary  —  'too  many  grand  opera 
stars,'  one  observer  expresses  it.  This  has  made  the  administration  top-heavy, 
and  accounts  for  some  of  the  vacillation  in  poUcy,  .  .  .  there  has  been  much  un- 
certainty as  to  the  location  of  final  responsibiUty."  "In  this  respect  the  situation 
has  closely  resembled  thnt  which  prevailed  too  long  in  the  Bureau  of  War  Risk 
Insurance  in  the  Treasury  Department.  The  official  head  in  each  case  was  one  of 
whom  all  have  spoken  well  personally  and  who  had  the  complete  confidence  of 
the  cabinet  member  to  whom  he  owed  his  appointment.  In  each  case,  however, 
an  assistant  secretary  and  numerous  special  experts  exercised  more  or  less  authority 
or  influence ;  and  in  each  case  the  result  of  such  division  of  authority  and  such 
uncertainty  proved  to  be  adverse  to  good  administration." 

*  New  Republic,  July  27,  1918. 


iqS  the  labor  market 

approximately  3,985,390  to  positions;  and  received  reports 
from  employers  that  2,371,677  of  them  had  been  employed.  In 
six  months  it  moved  165,000  unskilled  laborers  to  other  states. 
It  is  estimated  that  the  Service  saved  wage  earners  $8,000,000 
in  fees.  It  is  impossible  to  compute  what  the  Service  meant 
to  employers  in  decreased  turnover  and  increased  production. 
Nearly  368,000  women  obtained  positions  through  the  Service 
in  ten  months;  3000  motor  mechanics  and  6000  railway  men 
were  recruited  for  overseas  service,  and  a  large  number  of 
technicians  for  various  government  departments.  Between 
July  I  and  December  31,  1918,  it  placed  7500  handicapped 
men.  After  the  armistice  was  signed  it  established  1850  bureaus 
for  replacing  soldiers  and  sailors  in  employment,  and  through 
its  branches  in  army  camps  helped  the  soldier  to  go  from  the 
camp  to  employment. 

But  these  items  do  not  represent  the  total  benefits  rendered. 
Two  of  the  most  valuable  efifects  of  the  Service  were  the  check- 
ing of  reckless  labor  recruiting  by  employers  and  the  restraint 
it  imposed  upon  the  private  employment  agencies.  Equally 
important,  if  not  more  important,  was  its  weekly  collection  of 
information  upon  conditions  in  the  labor  market  throughout 
the  country.  For  the  first  time  in  its  history,  the  nation  was 
able  to  obtain  reliable  information  upon  the  current  demand 
and  supply  of  labor  in  all  sections  of  the  country.  Employers 
were  able  to  forecast  the  labor  side  of  their  production  problem 
in  a  way  that  had  never  been  possible  before.  Labor  market 
data,  comparable  with  stock  and  commodity  market  data,  were 
available. 

Summary 

It  has  been  the  purpose  of  this  chapter  to  describe  the  United 
States  Employment  Service  as  operative  during  the  war.  The 
failure  of  Congress  to  appropriate  $1,800,000  necessary  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  the  Service  from  March  i  to  June  30,  1919, 
very  nearly  destroyed  the  Service  during  the  spring  of  1919. 
It  is  uncertain,  at  the  time  this  book  goes  to  press,  whether 


THE   UNITED   STATES   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE        199 

or  not  funds  will   be  appropriated  by  the  next  Congress  for 
its  continuation. 

The  next  chapter  will  describe  the  British  and  Canadian 
Employment  Systems ;  the  succeeding  chapter  will  present  the 
writer's  conception  of  a  federal  employment  service,  and  the 
following  chapter  will  discuss  the  relation  of  employers'  employ- 
ment departments  to  a  federal  employment  service. 


CHAPTER  X 

LESSONS  FROM  THE   BRITISH  AND   CANADIAN 
EMPLOYMENT   SYSTEMS 

England  was  the  first  nation  to  establish  a  national  system 
of  employment  exchanges,  and  up  to  the  present  time  England 
and  Canada  are  the  only  nations  which  have  established  per- 
manent, nation-wide  organizations.  The  United  States  Em- 
ployment Service  was  patterned  to  a  certain  extent  upon  the 
British  system.  But  it  differed  in  essential  particulars,  and 
not  entirely  to  our  benefit.  It  is  worth  while  to  give  some 
attention  to  the  essential  features  of  the  EngUsh  plan.^ 

The  law  of  1909  which  provided  for  the  employment  exchanges 
put  their  administration  in  the  hands  of  the  EngHsh  Board  of 
Trade,  and  they  established  the  first  group  of  ofiices,  61  in 
number,  in  February,  1910.  The  Board  of  Trade  differs  from 
any  of  our  federal  departments  in  having  jurisdiction  over 
matters  both  of  a  business  and  of  a  labor  character.  Roughly 
speaking,  it  combines  the  functions  of  our  Department  of  Com- 
merce and  our  Department  of  Labor.  It  represents  both  the 
employer  and  the  employee.     It  represents  the  public. 

The  United  States  Department  of  Labor,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  an  organization  which  was  created  to  safeguard  and  promote 
the  welfare  of  the  workers,  and  its  secretary  is  a  trade  unionist. 
There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  United  States  Employ- 
ment Service  was  operated  with  any  bias  in  favor  of  either 
employee  or  employer.     There  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 

1  The  discussion  which  led  to  the  establishment  of  the  British  system  originated 
in  the  remarkable  book  of  Mr.  W.  H.  Beveridge,  "Unemployment,  A  Problem  of 
Industry."  The  writings  of  Sidney  Webb  and  other  English  authors  to  whom 
reference  is  made  in  all  bibliographies,  and  the  reports  of  the  Poor  Law  Commission, 
materially  promoted  the  movement.  It  is  worth  noting  that  England  based  her 
plan  upon  a  thorough  and  scientific  study  of  the  condition  in  her  labor  market,  and 
then  put  her  leading  student  of  unemplojTnent,  Mr.  Beveridge,  in  charge  of  the 
national  system  when  it  was  estabUshed. 

200 


LESSONS  FROM   EMPLOYMENT  SYSTEMS  20I 

every  effort  was  made  to  maintain  neutrality.  But  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor  unfortunately  had  to  face  a  long-standing  prej- 
udice, which  it  aggravated  instead  of  appeased  by  its  policy 
of  featuring  the  words  "Department  of  Labor"  instead  of  the 
words,  "United  States  Employment  Service,"  on  every  office, 
on  every  bulletin,  every  post  card,  and  circular  which  it  issued. 
In  every  part  of  the  country  you  will  find  employers  demand- 
ing that  the  federal  employment  service  be  divorced  from  con- 
trol by  the  Department  of  Labor. 

The  employment  manager  of  a  large  American  corporation 
reflects  the  employers'  views  in  a  latter  addressed  to  the  writer 
on  November  12,  1918 :  "Employment  service  must  be  impar- 
tial and  serve  two  masters.  It  must  protect  the  interests  of 
the  employer  and  it  must  render  the  utmost  possible  service 
to  the  worker.  A  careful  balance  must  be  maintained  between 
the  two,  and  the  minute  either  phase  is  emphasized  unduly, 
the  whole  machine  is  thrown  out  of  balance  and  the  value  of 
the  service  automatically  ceases.  The  Department  of  Labor 
is  organized  primarily  to  assist  the  workingman  and  to  act  in 
his  behalf.  There  is  therefore  no  place  in  it  for  a  neutral  agency. 
The  United  States  Employment  Service  should  be  divorced 
absolutely  from  the  Department  of  Labor  and  a  Secretary  of 
Employment  should  be  appointed  as  a  new  cabinet  officer. 
It  would  be  just  as  reasonable  to  place  the  United  States 
Employment  Service  under  the  Department  of  Commerce  as 
representing  the  management  of  industry  as  it  is  to  leave  it  in 
the  Department  of  Labor,  and  I  am  very  strongly  in  favor 
of  establishing  it  as  a  separate  agency  in  the  position  to  which 
it  is  entitled." 

The  only  possible  means  of  securing  a  form  of  organization 
which  would  bear  the  marks  of  neutrality  on  its  face,  as  the 
English  organization  did,  seems  to  be  the  creation  of  some  form 
of  independent  commission,  on  which  industries  and  agricul- 
ture, as  well  as  labor,  can  be  represented ;  or  a  Central  Employ- 
ment Council  which  would  exercise  the  powers  of  a  board  of 
directors  and  leave  the  Service  in  but  a  nominal  connection  with 
the  Department  of  Labor. 


202  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

Early  in  1917,  as  a  war  measure,  the  British  employment  ex- 
changes were  transferred  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Board  of 
Trade  to  the  Ministry  of  Labor.^  No  essential  changes  were 
made  in  the  principles  which  guided  their  work  or  in  the  per- 
sonnel of  the  Service.  The  significant  modification  following 
this  change  consisted  of  the  creation  of  advisory  committees 
representing  the  employers  and  employes  to  help  manage  the 
ofl&ces. 

"  Without  this  cooperation  and  support  of  local  employers  and 
work  people,  the  exchanges  must  largely  fail  to  reach  the  level  of 
usefulness  of  which  they  are  capable,"  says  a  government  pronounce- 
ment.* "  In  order  to  bring  local  employers  and  work  people  into 
close  touch  with  the  exchange  and  to  give  them  an  insight  into  its 
working  and  some  share  in  its  direction,  local  advisory  committees 
have  recently  been  set  up  in  connection  with  the  various  exchanges." 

The  creation  of  these  advisory  committees  is  declared  by  the 
Ministry  of  Labor  to  be  "  the  most  important  development  of  the 
employment  exchanges  during  the  year  191 7."  ^  Two  hundred 
and  fifty  such  conunittees  were  established,  some  having  juris- 
diction over  more  than  one  exchange.  They  are  composed  of 
equal  numbers  of  employers  and  of  employees  and  "a  small 
number  of  additional  members  (not  exceeding  one  third  of  the 
total  membership)  nominated  by  the  Ministry  of  Labor  as 
representing  other  interests."  The  functions  include  the  con- 
sideration of  any  matters  in  connection  with  the  working  of  the 
exchange  and  are  not  confined  to  matters  referred  to  them  by 
the  department.'* 

The  number  of  exchanges  was  gradually  increased  from  61 
in  1910  to  430  in  191 2,  and  then  reduced  to  390  by  1916,  when 
experience  demonstrated  that  certain  oflEices  could  be  consoli- 
dated.^   These  ofiices  had  over  a  thousand  sub-agencies  in 

1  Board  of  Trade  Labour  Gazette,  February,  1917,  p.  48. 

^  Quoted,  Monthly  Labor  Reviru),  September,  1918.  '  Ibid.,  April,  1918. 

■•  A  similar  plan  was  recommended  in  an  ofiBdal  report  for  Austria-Hungary, 
Monthly  Labor  Review,  March,   1916,  pp.  8Q-90. 

'  A  thorough  report  of  the  British  offices  from  1910  to  1916  by  Bruno  Lasker  wUl 
be  found  in  "The  British  System  of  Labour  Exchanges,"  Bulletin  206,  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.  Facts  taken  by  the  writer  from  other  sources  are  indi- 
cated by  footnotes.     Cf.  also  "Labour  Exchanges  in  th#  United  Kingdom,"  Hugh 


LESSONS   FROM   EMPLOYMENT  SYSTEMS  203 

industrial  suburbs,  small  towns,  and  rural  districts,  some  of 
which  are  served  by  traveling  officers  who  open  them  for  but 
a  day  or  two  a  week  in  each  town.  During  the  war  391  ex- 
changes, 173  local  agents  acting  as  exchanges  in  smaller  centers, 
and  1081  part-time  officers  "appointed  primarily  for  the  ad- 
ministration of  unemployment  insurance  in  districts  where  the 
establishment  of  an  exchange  would  not  be  justified."  These 
exchanges  registered  2,837,650  separate  individuals  during  191 7  ; 
received  applications  from  employers  for  1,999,442,  and  filled 
i>555)223  positions  with  1,375,198  individuals.^  The  Minis- 
try of  Labour  states  that  the  exchanges  proved  "to  be  of  the 
greatest  value  in  connection  with  the  organization  of  the  labor 
supply  during  the  war."  ^ 

In  order  to  coordinate  the  work  of  the  offices  in  the  various 
sections  of  the  country,  the  "exchanges  are  grouped  in  eight 
territorial  divisions,  varying  in  area  with  the  industrial  im- 
portance of  the  counties  included  in  each,"  and  each  district 
has  its  central  office  or  clearing  house.  These  districts  and 
their  central  offices  would  correspond  to  the  states  and  state 
offices  of  the  United  States  Employment  Service ;  while  the 
central  clearing  house  in  London,  which  coordinates  the  work 
of  the  eight  districts,  corresponds  to  the  central  office  at 
Washington  clearing  between  states.  In  order  to  effect  the 
most  complete  cooperation  between  the  local  offices,  "the  ex- 
changes are  connected  by  telephone,  not  only  each  with  its 
divisional  office,  but  also  with  each  other,  both  within  and 
without  the  division." 

During  the  war  the  country  was  further  subdivided  into  forty- 
five  "clearing  areas,"  wath  from  two  to  thirty-one  offices  in 
each  clearing  area,  and  with  a  clearing  office  in  each  area. 
Any  local  office  which  cannot  fill  a  vacancy  immediately  notifies 
its  clearance  office  to  ascertain  whether  the  vacancy  can  be 

McLaughlin,  Appendix  A,  Report  of  Ontario  Commission  on  Unemployment,  1916. 
This  report  is  particularly  valuable  in  its  revelation  of  the  detail  of  British  exchange 
management,  including  their  record  forms. 

*  Monthly  Labor  Review,  April,  1918.  Their  placements  for  the  four  yean-. 
1914-17  are  reported  in  Monthly  Labor  Review,  January,  1919,  p.  131. 

*  Quoted,  Monthly  Labor  Review,  September,  1918. 


204  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

filled  by  another  ofl&ce  within  the  area.  K  not,  and  if  the  posi- 
tion is  one  for  which  a  worker  might  reasonably  be  brought 
from  a  considerable  distance,  the  "particulars  are  at  once  sent 
by  the  clearing  exchange  to  the  national  clearing  house  at  the 
head  ofiice  in  London"  and  there  printed  in  an  abbreviated 
form  for  circulation  the  next  day  to  every  exchange  in  the 
country.  "Thus,  any  exchange  which  has  a  suitable  appUcant 
for  the  vacancy  is  placed  in  a  position  to  submit  him  for  engage- 
ment."   About  21,000  vacancies  a  day  are  thus  circulated.^ 

One  of  the  difficult  practical  problems  which  confront  us 
in  working  out  our  federal  Employment  Service  —  for  we  must 
work  one  out  —  is  the  determination  of  the  number  of  offices 
to  be  established.  It  is  important  both  from  the  point  of  view 
of  expense  and  from  that  of  employment  exchange  efficiency. 
An  insufficient  number  of  offices  will  cripple  our  industries ;  an 
excessive  number  will  result  in  a  large  waste  of  pubHc  funds 
at  a  time  in  our  national  life  when  taxes  are  already  burdensome, 
and  will  also  leave  the  persons  in  each  office  with  too  much  idle 
time  on  their  hands,  a  condition  certain  to  result  in  a  marked 
deterioration  of  their  individual  efficiency. 

During  the  war  876  offices  were  established  within  a  few 
months.  Congress's  failure  to  appropriate  funds  for  their 
continuance  has  closed  several  hundred  of  them.  Local  and 
private  funds  have  kept  the  others  in  operation  with  a  dimin- 
ished force.  We  must  therefore  rebuild  our  national  system 
and  reestablish  a  large  proportion  of  our  total  equipment  of 
offices.  It  is  therefore  pertinent  now  to  consider  on  its  merits 
the  original  question :  How  many  offices  do  we  need  and  what 
shall  be  the  type  or  types  of  those  offices? 

It  is  perfectly  clear  that  we  will  need  a  large  number  of  ex- 
changes, perhaps  as  many  or  more  than  existed  in  191 8.  New 
York  City  alone  has  over  600  private,  fee-charging  offices, 
without  counting  the  public,  philanthropic,  trade  union,  and 
employers'  offices ;  San  Francisco  had  131  in  1902,  and  probably 
has  more  now.  Thirty  or  forty  public  exchanges  will  be  needed 
in  New  York.  Many  other  labor  centers,  such  as  Chicago, 
1  Montfdy  Labor  Review,  September,  1918. 


LESSONS  FROM  EMPLOYMENT  SYSTEMS  205 

St.  Louis,  Omaha,  or  Minneapolis,  would  require  a  number  of 
offices,  while  many  second-  and  third-class  cities  would  need  one 
office.  The  English  policy  of  keeping  the  number  of  offices 
down  to  the  smallest  number  that  can  handle  the  business  is 
as  good  employment  practice,  however,  as  it  is  good  economy. 
A  live  manager  can  get  sufficient  cooperation  from  many  other 
organizations,  such  as  establishment  employment  departments, 
the  business  agents  of  trade  unions,  county  agricultural  agents, 
country  banks  and  mercantile  establishments,  rural  mail 
carriers,  and  philanthropic  organizations,  to  enable  him  to 
spread  a  network  of  contacts  through  the  community.  A 
single  large,  well-equipped  office,  with  separate  departments 
for  skilled  and  unskilled  workers,  with  possibly  a  separation 
of  certain  classes  of  labor  like  railroad  workers,  farm  hands,  or 
dock  workers,  clerical  and  office  help,  women,  and  juveniles, 
can  do  much  better  placement  work  and  acquire  a  better  knowl- 
edge of  conditions  in  the  local  labor  market,  than  a  number  of 
small  offices  in  which  one  or  two  persons  have  to  handle  all 
classes  of  business.  Such  offices  tend  to  degenerate  into  a 
condition  in  which  they  devote  nearly  all  of  their  time  to  one 
class  of  workers  —  the  irregular,  unreliable  laborers  who  are 
continually  patronizing  employment  offices  because  they  never 
hold  a  job  more  than  a  few  days  or  a  week  or  two. 

An  important  economy  can  be  attained  in  many  agricultural 
or  semi-agricultural  states  by  establishing  offices  for  a  portion 
of  the  year  in  one  section  of  the  state  to  serve  agriculture,  and 
then  moving  the  office  to  another  section  during  the  winter  to 
serve  lumbering  or  other  winter  employments.  For  instance, 
an  office  is  needed  in  southwestern  Minnesota  from  March  i 
to  October,  to  distribute  labor  for  the  farmers.  Northern 
Minnesota,  during  these  months,  does  not  need  an  office.  But 
in  the  fall,  when  the  farmers  of  southwestern  Minnesota  are 
releasing  instead  of  hiring  men,  an  active  demand  for  lumber- 
men develops  around  Bemidji  and  other  northern  towns.  An 
office  operating  at  Pipestone  or  Worthington  during  the  summer 
could  be  moved  to  Bemidji,  Park  Rapids,  or  Detroit  during  the 
winter,  thus  providing  two  offices  on  a  single  salary  item. 


2o6  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

The  United  States  can  afford,  however,  to  support  an  adequate 
number  of  offices.  Even  the  excessive  expenditures  inevitably 
incurred  in  the  sudden  creation  of  the  United  States  Employ- 
ment Service  during  the  war,  do  not  equal  what  the  workers  of  the 
nation  lose  each  year  in  fees  paid  to  private  employment  agents.^ 
And  these  fees  constitute  only  a  minor  portion  of  what  the 
nation  loses  by  its  disorganized  labor  market.  Who  can  figure 
the  employers'  losses  in  excessive  turnover  or  the  nation's 
loss  in  deteriorating  working  efficiency,  the  embitterment  of 
the  workers,  and  the  destruction  of  good  citizenship ! 

A  state  like  New  York  would  require  from  fifty  to  a  hundred 
offices  to  meet  its  needs ;  a  middle  west  state  like  Wisconsin 
or  Minnesota  could  handle  its  business  with  from  ten  to  twenty ; 
while  some  of  the  more  sparsely  settled  states  could  get  along 
satisfactorily  vdth  two  or  three.  Each  office  should  obtain  valu- 
able cooperation  from  many  agencies  outside  of  the  Service, 
thus  establishing  throughout  the  country  thousands  of  more 
or  less  active  sub-agencies  which  would  both  promote  the  work 
and  develop  good  will  for  the  Service  throughout  the  community. 

The  British  exchanges  met  the  same  opposition  or  indiffer- 
ence at  the  beginning  that  the  United  States  Service  has  met. 
But  they  have  lived  it  down,  to  a  considerable  degree,  by  serv- 
ice. "Employers  at  first  applied  to  the  exchanges  only  when 
in  need  of  the  lowest  types  of  occasional  help  or  when,  owing 
to  an  unusual  pressure  in  the  demand,  they  had  failed  to  fill, 
by  their  usual  means  of  recruiting,  vacancies  for  more  qualified 

1  Charles  B.  Barnes,  for  a  number  of  years  superintendent  of  the  public  employ- 
ment offices  of  New  York  State,  estimates  that  as  a  minimum  the  employment  agen- 
cies in  New  York  City  alone  collect  $2,500,000  from  the  workers  in  fees  for  jobs 
{New  York  Tribune,  February  6,  igig).  At  least  one  half  as  much  is  taken  in 
Chicago,  while  the  agencies  in  such  cities  as  Minneapolis,  St.  Louis,  Omaha,  Boston, 
or  San  Francisco,  reap  a  harvest  which  easily  runs  from  one  to  several  hundred 
thousand  dollars  a  year.  And  many  smaller  cities,  such  as  Duluth,  or  Bemidji, 
Minnesota,  Fargo,  North  Dakota,  or  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  have  a  number  of  ofl&ces 
which  do  a  thriving  business. 

The  Ohio  Industrial  Commission  estimates,  on  the  basis  of  the  actual  fees  charged 
by  private  agencies  in  Ohio /or  the  particular  kinds  of  positions  filled,  that  the  I75.Q5S 
placements  made  by  the  Ohio  public  oflBces  in  191 7  would  have  cost  the  workers 
$350,000  if  there  had  been  no  public  offices.  —  United  States  Labor  Review, 
September,  191S,  pp.  303-304. 


LESSONS   FROM   EMPLOYMENT  SYSTEMS  207 

and  experienced  workers.  ...  It  has  taken  years  to  persuade 
employers  that  they  must  use  the  exchanges  all  the  year  round 
and  for  all  classes  of  labor  ...  in  order  to  test  fairly  their  power 
to  procure  suitable  men  more  quickly  and  at  less  expense  and 
trouble  than  by  any  other  method."  "The  greatest  difficulty 
was  experienced  in  persuading  self-respecting  and  skilled  artisans 
that  the  exchanges  were  at  their  service  as  much  as  that  of  un- 
skilled and  casual  laborers."  They  could  not  see  the  essen- 
tial difference  between  them  and  the  "labor  bureaus"  which 
had  existed  under  the  Unemployed  Workmen  Act  of  1905. 
These  had  been  created  by  municipal  "distress  committees" 
at  times  of  exceptional  trade  depression  and  had  soon  been 
swamped  by  the  "  unclassifiable  type  of  unskilled,  shiftless, 
often  physically  handicapped  or  old  and  intemperate  or  starv- 
ing, *  semi-employable '  applicants  for  whom  wages,"  as  a  rule, 
had  to  be  part  charity.  But  genuine  service  has  removed 
much  of  the  opposition.  And  service,  not  posters,  is  what 
must  be  depended  upon  for  the  same  result  in  the  United  States. 
The  purposes  which  Britain  sought  to  achieve  by  her  labor 
exchanges  are  identical  with  those  inspiring  such  an  organiza- 
tion in  America;  the  increasing  and  improving  of  means  of 
communication  between  employers  seeking  work  people  and 
work  people  seeking  employment,  the  elimination  of  waste 
time  when  workers  are  changing  jobs;  the  prompt  filling  of 
employers'  needs  for  help ;  the  reduction  of  the  moral  and  physi- 
cal degeneration  which  results  from  idleness;  the  abolition  of 
"the  wasteful  system  by  which  a  large  firm  is  apt  to  keep  its 
own  reserve  of  labor  in  the  shape  of  half-employed  work  people 
waiting  at  its  gates  instead  of  drawing  from  a  common  reserve 
in  which  the  variation  in  one  branch  can  in  some  measure  be 
compensated  by  the  fluctuations  in  another" ;  and  "  to  contrib- 
ute to  the  knowledge  of  the  labor  market  and  (thus)  ...  to 
enable  the  National  Government  and  the  local  authorities  to 
shape  their  labor  policy  in  accordance  with  theirs  and,  if  neces- 
sary, to  take  steps  in  time  to  prevent  by  artificial  means  ab- 
normal unemployment  and  distress."  "It  was  hoped  further 
that  .  .  .  the  labor  exchanges  would  assist  in  the  recognition 


2o8  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

with  more  precision  of  such  general  movements  ...  in  differ- 
ent industries  as  would  justify  or  necessitate  alterations  in  the 
facihties  for  industrial  training.  Such  records  would  further 
indicate  the  trades  especially  liable  to  frequent  or  seasonal 
cessations  of  work  and  therefore  especially  fit  subjects  for  un- 
employment insurance,  and  the  'blind  alley'  employments 
which  give  occupation  for  a  few  years  only  and  then  throw 
those  engaged  in  them  on  the  labor  market  unequipped  and 
sometimes  unfitted  for  other  work. 

''There  was  thus,  from  the  beginning,  a  wide  social  policy 
behind  the  comparatively  simple  machinery  created  for  one 
definite  practical  purpose."  * 

They  proved  of  vital  importance  in  handling  the  personal 
problems  involved  in  the  large  increase  of  employment  of  women 
and  juveniles  during  the  war.  The  mobiUzation  of  women 
for  war  work,  and  later  the  demobilization,  had  to  be  carried 
on  through  an  experienced,  reliable  agency,  and  the  govern- 
ment found  one  ready  to  its  hand  in  the  employment  exchanges. 
Juvenile  employment  involved  the  future  as  well  as  the  present, 
and  juvenile  employment  committees,  by  bringing  the  employ- 
ment ofi&ces  and  the  schools  into  co5peration,  have  prevented 
many  of  the  evils  which  might  have  accompanied  the  large 
increase  in  child  labor  during  the  war.^ 

The  business  principles  which  direct  the  work  of  the  British 
exchanges,  while  not  different  from  those  that  have  been  worked 
out  in  the  best  American  public  oflSces,  are  worth  specific  state- 
ment. 

(i)  The  employment  exchange  is  a  market.  It  makes  a 
rough  selection  for  employers  of  workmen  who  answer  the 
employer's  description  of  the  type  of  help  he  wants.  It  refers 
such  workmen  to  the  employer.  It  offers  to  the  workman  a 
position  of  the  type  which  he  wants  for  which  he  seems  quali- 
fied. Neither  the  employer  nor  the  workman  is  bound  to 
accept  the  selection  made  by  the  ofl&ce.     The  exchange  "  simply 

1  From  "The  British  System  of  Labour  Exchanges,"  Bruno  Lasker,  Bulletin 
206,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 

*  Monthly  Labor  Review,  September,  1918;    January,  1919. 


LESSONS   FROM   EMPLOYMENT  SYSTEMS  209 

hands  on  information  as  received  and  leaves  it  to  employers 
and  work  people  to  decide  for  themselves  whether  they  can 
come    to    terms." 

(2)  The  best  available  man  is  in  each  case  referred  to  the 
employer,  not  the  one  who  registered  first.  Priority  is  recog- 
nized only  by  sending  the  first  man  registered  who  is  fit.  Often 
several  persons  are  sent  so  that  the  employer  can  choose  the 
one  that  suits  him  best.  The  greater  the  experience  and  sk"n 
of  the  manager  of  the  exchange,  the  less  frequently  is  it  necessary 
for  him  to  send  more  than  one  applicant  to  the  employer. 

(3)  If  the  local  office  has  no  man  who  fits  the  employer's 
need,  he  advertises  the  position  on  his  bulletin  board,  or  tele- 
phones his  division  office  to  see  if  they  can  get  the  needed  worker 
from  some  other  office. 

(4)  Help  is  sent  to  establishments  where  a  strike  or  lockout 
is  in  progress,  but  a  full  statement  of  the  facts  is  given  each 
workman  so  sent  out. 

Mr.  Hugh  McLaughlin  has  given  us  a  good  analysis  of  the 
fundamental  principles  which  underlie  the  British  system.  He 
says : ^ 

"The  Labour  Exchange  System  in  the  United  Kingdom  is  essen- 
tially a  business  organization.  Employer  and  employee  are  brought 
together  by  the  Labour  Exchange,  just  as  vendor  and  purchaser 
have,  for  centuries,  been  brought  together  in  markets  of  various  kinds. 
Not  only  is  each  community  organized  in  one  labour  market,  but  all 
these  small  labour  markets  are  so  correlated,  that  there  is,  in  reality, 
but  one  labour  market  in  the  United  Kingdom. 

"In  connection  with  the  work  of  the  Labour  Exchanges,  there  are 
several  outstanding  principles : 

"First  —  The  system  is  hidustrial :  Ever>^lhing  possible  has  been 
done  to  free  the  Labour  Exchange  from  any  form  of  association  uith 
charity  and  the  relief  of  distress.  The  only  thing  to  be  obtained 
through  the  Labour  Exchanges  is  ordinary  cmploj-ment,  and  there  is 
no  inducement  for  those  to  come  who  only  want  poor  relief. 

"Second, —  The  system  is  voluntary:  No  compulsion  is  or  can  be 
exercised  either  on  employer  or  workman. 

'  Report  of  Ontario  Commission  on  Unemployment,  1916,  pp.  263-264. 


210  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

"Third  —  The  system  is  free:  No  charges  of  any  kind  are  levied 
either  on  employer  or  workman. 

"  Fourth  —  The  system  is  impartial:  The  Labour  Exchanges  assume 
a  neutral  position  in  all  conflicts  between  employer  and  workman, 
either  strikes  or  lock-outs.  In  all  trade  disputes,  employers  and 
workmen  may  make  a  signed  statement  of  the  fact  which  the  Labour 
Exchange  Officials  must  show  to  applicants  for  work,  before  sending 
them  to  fill  the  places  of  the  men  involved  in  the  dispute.  .  .  . 

"No  responsibility  is  taken  by  Labour  Exchange  ofiicials  as  to 
wages  and  conditions  of  employment  beyond  supplying  employer  or 
applicant  with  any  information  in  their  possession.  Copies  or  sum- 
maries of  any  agreements  mutually  arranged  between  associations 
of  employers  and  workmen  or  any  rules  made  by  pubhc  authorities 
for  the  regulation  of  wages  or  other  conditions  of  labour  in  any  trade 
may  with  the  consent  of  all  parties  be  filed  at  a  Labour  Exchange 
and  shall  be  open  to  public  inspection.  Refusal  to  accept  employ- 
ment on  account  of  trade  dispute,  wages  or  conditions  does  not 
disqualify  or  prejudice  the  applicant. 

"And  Fifth  —  The  system  is  unrestricted:  All  kinds  of  employ- 
ment, skilled,  unskilled  or  clerical,  are  dealt  with  by  the  Labour  Ex- 
changes, with  the  two  exceptions  of  appUcants  for  indoor  domestic 
service  and  the  mercantile  marine.  There  are  examples  of  positions 
having  been  obtained  for  unemployed  curates." 

Canadian  Employment  Service 

Canada,  like  the  United  States,  realizes  the  need  for  a  na- 
tional system  of  employment  exchanges  and  has  determined 
upon  a  plan  which  closely  resembles  the  federal  subsidy  plan 
which  has  been  proposed  for  the  United  States,  and  which  may 
eventually  be  established  here.^  The  Canadian  government  ^ 
appropriated  $50,000  for  the  fiscal  year  1918-19;  $100,000 
for  1919-20;  and  $150,000  for  1920-21  and  each  year 
thereafter,  to  be  used  by  the  Dominion  government  to  operate 
a  central  office  and  clearing  house  and  to  subsidize  such  pro- 
visional employment  ofiice  systems  as  conformed  to  the  Domin- 

'  Legislation  of  a  similar  character  was  proposed  for  Austria.  Cf.  Monthly  Labor 
Review,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  March,  1916. 

'  Cf.  Tkc  Monthly  Labor  Review,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics, 
October,  191 8,  and  February,  191 9,  for  detailed  presentation  of  the  Canadian  plan. 


LESSONS   FROM   EMPLOYMENT  SYSTEMS  211 

ion  rules,  which  require  that  they  handle  all  classes  of  employ- 
ment business  and  make  such  reports  as  the  Dominion  govern- 
ment may  require. 

Each  province  must  establish  its  own  system  of  employment 
offices,  which  must  conform  to  an  agreement  entered  into  by  them 
with  the  Dominion  Minister  of  Labor,  and  which  must  include 
a  provincial  clearing  house,  to  cooperate  with  the  clearing  houses 
of  the  other  provinces  and  of  the  Dominion  in  shifting  labor 
from  one  province  to  another. 

The  Canadian  plan  also  includes  national,  provincial,  and 
local  advisory  councils  as  an  essential  element  of  the  organiza- 
tion. The  central  "Employment  Service  Council"  includes  in 
its  membership  a  representative  from  each  province,  two  repre- 
sentatives of  the  Canadian  Manufacturers'  Association,  two  of 
the  Canadian  Trades  and  Labor  Congress,  one  each  from  the 
Railway  War  Board,  the  Railway  Brotherhoods,  the  returned 
soldiers,  and  the  Soldiers'  Civil  Reestablishment  Department, 
two  from  the  Canadian  Council  of  Agriculture,  and  three  from 
the  Department  of  Labor,  two  of  whom  must  be  women. 

The  provincial  advisory  councils  must  include  an  equal 
number  of  representatives  of  the  employers  and  the  employees, 
and  are  appointed  by  the  lieutenant  governor  in  council ;  while 
the  local  advisory  boards  must  have  the  same  equal  representa- 
tion of  the  employers  and  the  workers. 

The  law  conforms  very  closely  to  our  federal  system  of 
vocational  education  and  to  the  subsidy  plan  as  outlined  for 
the  Association  for  Labor  Legislation  by  Professor  Seager.^ 

1  See  Chapter  XI. 


CHAPTER  XI 
A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE 

The  present  chapter  is  a  brief  description  of  the  author's 
conception  of  the  sort  of  federal  employment  service  needed  by 
the  United  States.  It  is  submitted  with  a  full  realization  that 
no  plan  can  be  advanced  which  will  not  have  to  be  modified  as 
experience  reveals  its  shortcomings.  The  first  step  is  to  install 
some  plan  which  seems  adequate.  We  can  then  develop  and 
modify  it  over  a  period  of  years  into  the  type  of  organization 
which  best  meets  the  problems  encountered.  It  is  folly  to 
make  no  effort,  and  would  be  equal  folly  to  finally  commit 
ourselves  to  any  form  of  organization,  policies,  or  personnel 
at  the  outset. 

The  plan  submitted  embodies  ideas  which  have  been  advanced 
by  a  number  of  American  experts  on  employment  and  by  Eng- 
lish writers,  as  well  as  those  features  of  English  and  American 
employment  organization  and  policy  which  have  been  proved 
satisfactory  by  experience.  It  is  a  composite  of  what  seems  to 
be  the  best  thought  on  the  subject.  We  will  make  no  attempt 
to  credit  to  individuals  the  origination  of  the  various  features 
of  the  plan,  but  simply  pool  our  own  ideas  with  those  of  other 
students  of  employment  in  an  effort  to  suggest  a  practical 
plan. 

Chapters  VI  to  X  have  made  it  clear  to  the  reader  that  an 
employment  service  must  be  organized  on  a  national  basis, 
that  it  must  be  provided  with  some  sort  of  clearing  houses,  that 
it  must  have  special  departments  to  handle  different  types  of 
workers,  that  it  must  have  advisory  committees  to  keep  it  in 
touch  with  the  employers  and  the  employees,  and  that  it  must 
be  operated  with  constructive,  social  policies  and  purposes  in 


A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  213 

mind.  We  accept  these  principles  as  a  basis  for  our  plan  and 
build  the  detail  of  the  organization  around  them. 

Two  plans  of  federal  employment  organization  were  vigorously 
advocated  in  the  United  States,  previous  to  the  organization 
of  the  United  States  Employment  Service,  both  of  which  differed 
from  the  service  actually  organized.  The  first  plan  called  for  the 
organization  of  a  Federal  Employment  Service  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  Labor;  the  "coordination  of  the  state  and  municipal 
pubhc  employment  bureaus  with  the  federal  service,  by  means 
of  the  payment  of  federal  subsidies  to  all  bureaus  which  should 
conform  to  rules  and  regulations  laid  down  by  the  federal 
director,"  and  the  "organization,  as  part  of  the  federal  serv- 
ice, of  clearing  houses  to  draw  the  bureaus  of  neighboring 
states  together  in  efiicient  cooperation,  and  through  a  central 
clearing  house  in  Washington  to  develop  a  truly  national 
system."  ^ 

The  essence  of  this  plan  is  federal-state-municipal  coopera- 
tion, held  together  by  federal  subsidies.  Theoretically,  the 
United  States  Employment  Service  might  be  said  to  have  been 
organized  on  some  such  principle.  But  practically,  it  was  not. 
It  absorbed  the  existing  state  and  municipal  ofiices.  It  estab- 
lished a  situation  where  states  and  municipahties  subsidized 
federal  offices,  rather  than  the  reverse.  Distinct  irritation  was 
created  in  many  localities  by  the  insistence  of  the  federal  serv- 
ice that  its  signs  should  dominate  on  the  windows  of  state 
offices,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  a  large  percentage  of  the  funds 
came  out  of  local  treasuries. 

1  (a)  "Coordination  of  Federal,  State,  and  Municipal  Employment  Bureaus." 
H.  R.  Seager,  American  Economic  Review,  Vol.  VIII,  No.  i,  Supplement,  March, 
IQ18.  This  article  explains  this  plan  in  detail.  (6)  "A  National  System  of  Em- 
ployment Ofl&ces,"  Wm.  B.  Wilson,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics, 
Bulletin  220,  p.  23 ;  Department  of  Labor  Conference  on  Employment,  San 
Francisco,  August  2-6,  igis,  Labor  Review,  October,  igis-  This  is  a  discussion  of 
the  federal  subsidy  plan,  with  the  address  in  full  of  Secretary  of  Labor  Wm.  B. 
Wilson,  advocating  it.  "Federal-State-Municipal  Employment  Service  in  New 
Jersey,"  Joseph  Spitz,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  220,  p.  30; 
"A  Federal  Labor  Reserve  Board,"  Wm.  M.  Leiserson,  United  States  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics,  Bulletin  220,  p.  33;  "Cooperation  among  Federal,  State,  and 
City  Employment  Bureaus,"  Hilda  Miihlhauser,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics,  Bulletin  220,  p.  17. 


214  ,  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

The  other  plan  referred  to  repudiates  the  federal  subsidy 
plan,  and  calls  for  a  purely  federal  service.  It  may  be  described 
in  the  words  of  George  E.  Barnett : ' 

"It  is  inevitable  that  the  federal  government  must  take  a  hand  if 
we  are  to  have  a  national  system  of  employment  ofifices.  But  is  the 
function  of  mere  coordination  assigned  to  the  federal  government  the 
proper  limit  of  its  part  in  a  national  system?  My  own  conviction 
is  that  the  system  should  not  be  merely  coordinated  by  the  federal 
government,  but  that  the  entire  system  should  be  centralized  and 
entrusted  to  the  federal  government.  I  shall  present  briefly  the 
advantages  which  a  centralized  federal  system,  in  my  opinion,  would 
have  over  the  dual  system  described  by  Professor  Seager. 

"i.  The  first  great  advantage  of  a  centralized  system  would  be 
the  enormous  saving  of  expense.  Under  the  dual  system,  a  whole 
set  of  officials  must  be  maintained  whose  only  duty  would  be  to 
bring  about  the  coordination  of  the  parts  of  the  system.  If  the  federal 
government  had  exclusive  control,  this  coordination  woidd  be  achieved 
with  only  a  fraction  of  the  effort,  since  the  local  officials  would  be 
directly  under  the  control  of  a  single  executive  head. 

"2.  The  second  advantage  Hes  in  the  superior  personnel  of  a 
purely  federal  service.  In  the  first  place,  the  service  would  be  more 
attractive  and  a  better  class  of  officers  could  be  secured.  Secondly, 
the  danger  of  purely  political  appointment  is  very  much  greater  in  the 
state  managed  systems  than  it  would  be  in  a  federal  system.  .  .  . 
Professor  Seager  expresses  his  anxiety  that  the  federal  appointments 
may  be  made  spoils  for  the  spoilsman.  ...  It  will  be  comparatively 
easy  to  put  the  clearing  houses  under  civil  service  rules,  but  if  the 
offices  with  which  the  laborers  come  into  actual  contact  are  manned 
by  political  incompetents,  the  system  will  be  rotten  at  the  bottom. 

"3.  A  centralized  federal  system  would  be  run  on  uniform  rules 
which  would  represent  the  national  view  of  the  attitude  which 
employment  offices  should  take  in  the  struggle  between  capital  and 
labor.  It  is  possible,  of  course,  for  the  federal  government  to  lay 
down  certain  rules  as  to  the  conduct  of  the  subsidized  state  employ- 
ment offices,  but  the  spirit  in  which  those  rules  will  be  carried  out 
cannot  be  guaranteed.  The  various  states  differ  widely  in  the  char- 
acter of  pubHc  opinion  on  the  labor  question.     Can  any  one  doubt 

*  "Employment  and  the  War,"  discussion, \fl>»frtca«  Economic  Review,  Supple- 
ment, Vol.  VIII,  No.  I,  March,  IQ18. 


A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  215 

that  these  differences  will  show  themselves  in  the  manner  in  which 
state  oflficials  conduct  employment  offices?  .  .  . 

"4.  There  is  no  question  that  the  workmen  in  most  if  not  all  of 
the  states  would  give  their  confidence  more  quickly  to  a  centralized 
system  on  account  of  the  greater  prestige  of  the  national  government. 
.  .  .     The  ultimate  aim  should  be  a  centralized  national  system." 

The  arguments  presented  by  Mr.  Bamett  for  a  straight 
federal  service  are  weighty.  But  they  overlook  an  important 
practical  consideration.  The  employment  problem  is  and  should 
be  in  the  first  instance  a  local  problem.  The  first  objective  of  an 
employment  office  must  be  the  placement  of  local  men  in  local 
establishments,  and  the  shifting  of  those  of  the  community 
who  become  idle  into  other  local  establishments.  The  stabili- 
zation of  employment  is  the  first  duty  of  such  a  service.^  It 
should  seek  to  help  employers  hold  their  men  and  help  workers 
hold  their  jobs.  It  should  seek  to  keep  as  large  a  portion  of 
the  workers  at  home  with  their  families  as  possible.  It  should 
discourage  employers  from  going  out  of  town  for  labor  unless 
it  is  absolutely  necessary.  No  employment  system  can  win  the 
confidence  of  employers  nor  attract  to  itself  the  best  class  of 
workers  unless  it  follows  this  principle.  Federal  employees, 
especially  when  sent  into  the  community  from  other  cities, 
frequently  lack  a  sense  of  responsibility  to  the  local  community, 
as  well  as  that  intimate  knowledge  of  local  conditions  which  is 
so  necessary  when  determining  whether  or  not  an  order  for 
labor  for  some  other  locality  should  be  filled  or  whether  all 
workmen  of  the  type  requested  can  secure  employment  locally. 
State  and  municipal  ofi&cials,  on  the  other  hand,  in  many  cases 
take  a  provincial  attitude  and  do  not  exert  themselves  to  supply 
legitimate  demands  for  labor  for  other  states.  The  ideal 
system  would  seem  to  be  one  in  which  the  control  and  direction 
of  the  service  rests  in  the  federal  government,  and  federal  funds 
bear  much  of  the  expense ;  but  in  which,  through  a  substantial 
contribution  to  the  cost  of  the  service,  and  participation  in  the 

1  Cf.  "A  Clearing  House  for  Labor,"  D.  D.  Lescohier,  Atlantic  Monthly,  June, 
1918;  "The  Employment  Service  as  a  Means  of  Public  Education,"  D.  D.  Lesco- 
hier, Industrial  Management,  April,  1919. 


2i6  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

management  of  the  service,  the  local  viewpoint  is  emphasized 
and  given  proper  weight. 

Proceeding  from  this  point  of  view  we  will  now  sketch  what 
seems  a  practical  scheme  for  a  federal-state  centralized  employ- 
ment service. 

I.  Financial  Responsibility 

The  fundamental  question  to  be  determined,  upon  which  the 
whole  plan  must  rest,  is  the  relative  responsibility  of  the 
federal,  state,  and  municipal  governments  in  the  support  of  the 
employment  system  and  the  relative  degree  of  control  and  re- 
sponsibility which  each  should  exercise  in  its  management.  We 
have  seen  that  in  England  the  central  government  maintains 
the  employment  system;  in  Canada  and  the  United  States 
both  the  central  government  and  the  local  governments  have 
contributed  to  its  support;  in  Germany  and  other  countries 
the  maintenance  has  rested  principally  on  the  municipalities. 
Our  decision  on  the  point  should  be  governed  by  two  consid- 
erations :  first,  to  what  extent  is  the  work  of  the  employment 
service  inter-state,  intra-state,  or  municipal  in  scope?  and 
second.  What  plan  promises  to  give  us  at  an  early  date  a  serv- 
ice adequate  for  the  nation's  needs? 

The  federal  government  should  certainly  carry  that  part  of 
the  expense  of  operation  which  is  chargeable  to  the  movement 
of  labor  from  one  state  to  another ;  the  state  government  may 
fairly  be  held  responsible  for  the  movement  of  labor  from  one 
part  of  a  state  to  another  part ;  while  the  municipality  should 
bear  much  of  the  expense  for  local  labor  placements.  To  illus- 
trate. Upon  examination  of  the  records  of  one  state's  employ- 
ment office  during  191 7,  we  found  that  about  40  per  cent  of  the 
placements  made  by  the  principal  public  exchange  in  that  state 
were  within  the  city  limits  of  the  municipality  in  which  the 
exchange  was  located ;  that  another  40  per  cent  of  the  place- 
ments were  within  the  state ;  and  that  20  per  cent  of  the  work- 
ers were  sent  to  other  states.  Upon  examination,  previous 
to  the  war,  of  the  records  of  the  public  exchanges  in  one  of  the 
largest  cities  of  the  country,  we  found  that  the  state  exchanges 


A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  217 

located  in  that  city  did  95  per  cent  of  their  business  within  the 
city  itself.  During  the  war,  as  we  have  shown,  several  hundred 
thousand  workers  were  moved  from  one  state  to  another  by 
the  Federal  Employment  Service.  It  is  very  evident,  therefore, 
that  there  are  distinct  municipal,  state,  and  federal  benefits 
and  responsibilities  which  might  properly  be  supported  by  the 
three  governmental  divisions.^  It  must  not  be  forgotten,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  the  products  of  the  local  industries  are  in 
large  part  for  inter-state  and  international  trade,  and  there  is 
a  federal  interest  even  in  local  placements.  The  farmer  in 
North  Dakota  has  an  interest  in  the  operation  of  the  shoe  fac- 
tories of  Massachusetts,  the  cotton  factories  of  New  York  City, 
and  the  locomotive  works  in  Philadelphia.  The  merchant  in 
New  York  City  is  affected  by  the  activity  or  dullness  of  the  iron 
mines  of  Minnesota,  the  furniture  factories  of  Michigan,  and 
the  meat  packing  industry  at  Chicago.  A  mathematical 
computation  of  the  proportion  of  inter-state,  intra-state,  and 
local  placements  does  not  fully  cover  the  question  involved. 
The  gathering  and  diffusion  of  information  with  respect  to  condi- 
tions in  the  labor  market  is  distinctly  a  federal  function.  The 
federal  government  may  properly  be  charged  with  the  expenses 
of  collecting  data  daily  in  each  industrial  district  showing  the 
relative  supply  and  demand  for  labor  in  each  locality.  This 
information  would,  of  course,  be  available  in  each  state  for 
the  guidance  of  the  state  system  as  well  as  for  national  guidance. 
There  is  no  uniformity  in  the  several  states  in  the  proportion 
of  inter-state,  intra-state,  and  local  business  done  in  the  ex- 
changes. Radical  differences  obtain.  In  some  states  more 
than  one  half  of  the  placements  are  of  an  inter-state  character ; 
in  other  states,  not  25  per  cent.  No  general  apportioning  of 
the  expense  between  the  various  governments  on  the  basis  of 
placements  could  conform  to  the  actual  facts  in  all  the  states. 
Some  arbitrary  plan  must  be  adopted  which  will  assess  against 
the  federal  government  a  definite  proportion  of  the  total  expense 

>  Cf .  "Responsibility  and  Opportunity  of  the  City  in  the  Prevention  of  Un- 
employment," Morris  L.  Cooke,  American  Labor  Legishtion  Reviru.-,  1915,  p.  4331 
"Relation  of  the  State  to  Unemployment,"  J.  P.  Jackson,  ibid.,  p.  437. 


2i8  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

and  the  remainder  upon  the  state,  and  leave  each  state  free  to 
make  such  arrangements  with  its  municipaUties  as  it  deems 
best. 

A  conference  of  representatives  from  the  various  states 
which  met  at  Washington  in  April,  1919,  to  discuss  plans  for 
a  permanent  federal-state  employment  service,  reached  the 
conclusion  that  the  federal  government  should  (i)  estabhsh 
and  maintain  a  system  of  public  employment  ofl&ces  "in  states 
where  there  is  no  state  employment  service,"  (2)  in  states  where 
there  is  a  state  employment  service  which  the  states  will  oper- 
ate "  in  accordance  with  uniform  rules  and  regulations  and  with 
the  standards  of  efi&ciency  prescribed  by  the  Director  General 
with  the  approval  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor."  The  federal 
government  shall  pay  to  the  treasurer  of  such  state  "for  the 
benefit  of  the  state  employment  system  an  amount  not  ex- 
ceeding the  allotment  for  the  state  and  equal  to  the  amount 
which  is  appropriated  by  the  state  and  its  local  subdivisions 
for  the  purpose,"  but  not  less  "than  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the 
allotment,^  on  the  basis  of  population  made  to  such  state,  nor 
less  than  the  amount  expended  by  such  state  for  pubUc  employ- 
ment offices  in  the  year  191 8." 

In  states  where  there  is  a  state  system  of  public  employment 
offices,  but  which  refuses  or  is  unable  to  operate  in  accordance 
with  the  uniform  rules,  regulations,  and  standards  of  efficiency 
prescribed  by  the  federal  service,  the  Secretary  of  Labor  is 
empowered  to  make  arrangements  with  the  governor  of  the 
state  for  cooperation  between  the  state  service  and  the  federal 
offices  established  in  the  state. 

This  plan,  it  will  be  observed,  is  the  federal  subsidy  plan 
described  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter,  and  widely  advo- 

1  The  "allotment"  referred  to  is  explained  in  another  section  of  the  memorandum. 
The  Secretary  of  Labor  is  empowered  to  divide  the  appropriation  provided  by 
Congress  for  the  support  of  the  service  into  three  portions;  (i)  A  sum  for  the  support 
of  the  central  office  at  Washington,  the  clearing  houses,  and  an  inspection  ser\"ice ; 
(2)  a  sum  to  be  allotted  to  the  several  states  on  the  basis  of  their  respective  popu- 
lation, and  (3)  a  balance  "to  be  expended  in  the  discretion  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor 
as  shall  be  required  where  necessary  to  supplement  the  ser\-ice  maintained  in  the 
several  states." 


A  FEDERAL   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE  219 

cated  in  this  country  before  the  war.  It  does  not  affect  as  com- 
plete centralization  as  does  either  the  British  or  the  Canadian 
plan.  Its  chief  virtues  are  found  in  its  attempted  consolidation 
of  the  federal,  state,  and  local  offices  into  a  uniform  system,  its 
stimulus  to  efficient  operation,  and  its  clearing  houses.  As  we 
shall  point  out  later  in  the  chapter,  it  is  deficient  in  leaving  too 
much  control  in  the  hands  of  the  Secretary  of  Labor,  and  giving 
the  employers  and  the  wage  earners  too  little  participation  in 
the  actual  direction  of  the  service. 

It  is  clear  that  the  federal,  state,  and  local  governmental 
units  ought  to  co5perate  in  providing  the  funds  for  the  national 
employment  service.  It  is  equally  clear  that  the  relative  pro- 
portions of  inter-state  and  intra-state  placements  cannot  be 
used  as  the  basis  for  apportioning  the  expense  between  the 
federal  and  state  governments,  but  that  each  must  pay  the 
expense  of  certain  aspects  of  the  service,  rather  than  according 
to  the  benefit  that  its  geographical  unit  receives.  The  federal 
government  must  bear  enough  of  the  total  expense  to  maintain 
the  central  organization  at  Washington,  clearing  houses,  and 
the  labor  market  information  service ;  provide  franked  envel- 
opes ;  bear  the  cost  of  inspection  of  ofiices  to  maintain  their 
efiiciency ;  and  carry  the  salaries  of  one  or  more  federal  employ- 
ment officials  in  each  state.  It  should  print  a  bulletin  similar 
to  the  United  States  Employment  Service  Bulletin  and  provide 
all  record  cards  and  report  forms.  It  should  also  contribute 
a  considerable  fraction  of  the  cost  of  operation  of  the  exchanges 
in  each  state.  The  state  governments  should  bear  a  large  part 
of  the  expense  of  the  central  office  in  the  state.  The  balance 
of  the  cost  should  be  borne  by  the  federal  government.  Unless 
the  central  government  provides  the  funds  and  sets  the  stand- 
ards for  the  state  central  ofiices,  few  states  will  provide  an 
adequate  central  office.  The  state  government  should  bear 
part  of  the  expense  of  maintenance  of  each  local  employment 
exchange  in  the  state.  The  municipalities  should  at  least 
provide  the  space  for  the  local  exchange,  janitor  service,  and 
heat,  light,  and  water.  It  is  not  necessary  to  work  out  in  minute 
detail  the  exact  portion  of  each  type  of  service  expense,  such 


2  20  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

as  telephone,  telegraph,  clerical  help,  stationery,  and  so  forth, 
which  should  be  charged  to  each  governmental  unit.  These 
are  practical  problems  to  be  worked  out  by  those  in  charge  of 
the  service.  The  essential  thing  is  the  fundamental  principle 
that  it  is  proper  to  charge  to  the  municipality,  the  state,  and  the 
the  federal  governments  part  of  the  cost  of  the  service,  and  that 
the  federal  government's  contribution  shall  be  made  in  a  man- 
ner which  will  enable  it  to  compel  the  local  exchanges  to  main- 
tain definite  standards  of  efficiency. 

The  joint  contributions  will  afifect  efficiency  in  another 
way.  If  each  of  these  three  units  is  paying  part  of  the  bills, 
each  of  them  will  be  watching  the  work  of  the  offices  from  its 
own  particular  point  of  view  and  insisting  on  results  for  its 
money.  Efficiency  will  be  kept  at  a  higher  level  by  the  three- 
fold responsibihty.  Many  a  federal  official,  two  thousand 
miles  away  from  his  central  office,  gradually  slips  into  a  per- 
functory performance  of  his  duties  which  will  be  avoided  when 
that  official  realizes  that  he  is  responsible  to  the  community  in 
which  he  resides  for  certain  definite  results  as  much  as  he  is 
responsible  to  Washington.  The  official  supported  by  the  state 
or  local  government,  on  the  other  hand,  will  be  stimulated 
to  extend  service  over  a  wider  geographical  area  and  w4th  more 
zeal  when  he  knows  that  he  is  responsible  to  the  federal  govern- 
ment as  well  as  to  the  local  government  v/hich  pays  his  salary. 

The  question  of  actual  administrative  control  is  a  delicate 
one  under  the  plan  of  joint  financing.  No  person  and  no  or- 
ganization wants  to  contribute  funds  to  carry  on  a  service  unless 
there  is  some  means  of  exercising  a  certain  control  over  the  ex- 
penditure of  the  funds.  On  the  other  hand,  some  one  must 
determine  the  policy  of  the  employment  service  and  must  see 
that  it  is  carried  out.  Part  of  the  officials  in  an  office  cannot  be 
responsible  to  one  authority  and  another  part  to  another  author- 
ity without  disorganization  of  the  work.  During  the  war  the 
writer  was  in  charge  of  a  state  employment  organization.  The 
United  States  Department  of  Agriculture  offered  its  cooperation 
and  the  services  of  a  farm  labor  specialist.  It  was  necessary, 
in  order  to  fit  the  farm  labor  speciaHst  into  the  state  organiza- 


A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  221 

tion,  to  insist  that  the  farm  labor  specialist  should  work  under 
the  orders  of  the  office  manager  just  as  if  he  had  been  paid 
out  of  the  state  funds,  reserving  to  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture the  right  to  send  its  representatives  to  the  office  from 
time  to  time  and  confer  with  their  agent  upon  his  work,  but  not 
allowing  the  Department  of  Agriculture  to  give  orders  with 
respect  to  the  detail  of  the  work  except  through  the  office  man- 
ager. If  the  Department  was  dissatisfied  with  the  work  which 
their  representative  was  able  to  do  in  the  exchange,  they  could 
notify  the  state  superintendent  of  that  dissatisfaction  and 
straighten  the  matter  out  with  him  or  withdraw  their  repre- 
sentative ;  but  they  could  not  give  orders  which  might  inter- 
fere with  the  general  policies  of  the  office  in  which  their  repre- 
sentative was  working.  It  is  clear  that  the  federal  government 
must  exercise  supervision  and  control  of  the  general  policies 
of  the  Service  and  furnish  the  central  direction.  But  it  cannot 
dominate  within  the  states  as  it  did  during  the  war.  Local 
interests  and  problems  must  be  given  due  consideration. 

The  best  manner  of  achieving  a  proper  balance  between  the 
national  and  the  state  considerations  in  the  direction  of  the 
exchanges  seems  to  be  through  an  Advisory  Board,  attached  to 
the  central  office  in  each  state.  This  board,  which  should  include 
a  strong  representation  of  persons  not  part  of  the  personnel  of  the 
Service,  would  advise  and  largely  guide  the  state  superintendent 
or  director  and  should  have  the  right  of  direct  communication 
with  and  appeal  to  the  director  general  and  to  the  Federal 
Employment  Council,  which  we  suggest  be  attached  to  the  di- 
rector general's  office.  Each  local  exchange  must  Hkewise 
have  its  community  board  to  help  direct  the  work  within  the 
community.  This  board  would  present  the  community's 
viewpoints  to  the  state  board,  when  necessary. 

Another  important  question  of  control  arises  in  the  matter 
of  the  state  superintendent  or  director.  Shall  he  be  a  federal 
officer  or  a  state  officer?  It  is  a  vital  question.  The  war-time 
service  placed  a  federal-state  director  in  each  state,  and  insisted 
that  the  state  and  municipal  employment  officials  work  under 
his  orders.    They  sought  uniformity  of  practice  through  federal 


222  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

management  of  the  Service.  The  federal  subsidy  plan  which 
we  have  just  been  discussing  proposes  an  opposite  principle. 
It  leaves  the  Service  in  each  state  within  the  control  of  the  state, 
and  assumes  that  a  director  chosen  by  the  state  will  be  in  charge 
of  the  Service  in  the  state,  though  that  Service  is  jointly  supported 
by  federal  and  state  funds.  In  other  words,  the  war  plan  gave 
the  federal  government  a  measure  of  control  over  the  expendi- 
ture of  state  funds ;  the  proposed  plan  gives  the  state  the  re- 
sponsibility of  expending  federal  funds. 

It  is  evident  that  one  plan  or  the  other  must  be  adopted, 
and  that  the  decision  must  be,  to  a  certain  extent,  an  arbitrary 
one.  It  is  impossible  to  demonstrate  by  any  citation  of  facts 
or  arguments,  that  either  plan  is  the  correct  one  and  the  other 
the  wrong  one.  On  the  whole,  under  American  conditions, 
the  reasons  which  favor  state  rather  than  federal  officers  as 
state  directors  seems  stronger.  It  was  evident  during  the  war 
that  many  states  and  municipalities  were  tempted  to  fold  their 
hands  and  let  the  federal  government  take  up  the  employment 
burden.  Federal  management  of  a  cooperative  service  will 
tempt  many  states  to  let  the  state  funds  lapse.  It  will  at 
least  cause  some  to  neglect  their  responsibility  in  the  direction 
of  the  work,  and  cause  the  service  to  lose  some  of  its  local  con- 
tact and  vitality.  On  the  other  hand,  state  expenditure  of 
federal  funds  under  a  cooperative  plan  which  permits  the  fed- 
eral government  to  set  the  standards  of  efficiency  and  withdraw 
its  aid  as  soon  as  the  state  fails  to  maintain  the  standards, 
has  been  distinctly  successful.  The  typical  American  likes 
local  responsibility.  He  believes  in  keeping  the  management 
of  public  enterprises  close  to  the  people  directly  affected.  The 
federal  government  has  been  able  to  promote  agricultural  de- 
velopment, vocational  education,  and  highway  construction 
by  subsidies  conditioned  on  the  federal  right  of  supervision  and 
inspection.!     We  have  already  seen  that  Canada  has  adopted 

1  Agricultural  Development: 

The  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture,  operating  under  the  Smith-Lever 
law,  contributes  about  one-third  of  the  cost  of  maintaining  county  agricultural 
agents,  the  state  and  the  county  contributing  the  balance.      The  details  of  the 


A   FEDERAL   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE  223 

the  federal  subsidy  plan  in  her  new  employment  service.  The 
cooperative  plan,  with  direct  state  responsibility  and  consider- 
able state  independence  in  management,  is  the  plan  which  has 
consistently  obtained  favor  among  the  majority  of  those  Amer- 
icans who  have  been  interested  in  an  organized  labor  market. 

The  federal  director  at  Washington,  the  several  state  direc- 
tors, and  the  managers  of  the  local  exchanges,  should  each  have 
a  council  of  advisers  who  would  take  an  active  part  in  the  direction 
of  the  work.  In  other  words,  they  should  be  more  analogous 
to  a  corporation's  board  of  directors  than  to  a  committee  of 
advisers  lacking  power  or  influence  to  make  their  advice  effective. 

The  writer  believes  that  the  creation  of  a  National  Employ- 
ment Service  Council,  largely  composed  of  persons  from  private 
life,  with  very  definite  powers  and  functions,  is  necessary  if 
public  confidence  is  to  be  won  for  the  Service. 

We  suggest  that  this  Council  include  representatives  of  the 
Departments  of  Labor,  Agriculture,  and  Commerce;  of  the 
manufacturers,  railways,  and  mining  interests ;  of  the  American 
Federation  of  Labor;  of  the  railway  brotherhoods  and  the 
mine  workers'  unions,  and  from  three  to  five  persons  appointed 
by  the  President  to  represent  the  public  and  unorganized  labor. 
At  least  two  members  of  the  Council  should  be  women.  This 
central  Employment  Council,  it  will  be  noted,  is  somewhat 
similar  to  the  Employment  Service  Council  of  Canada.     If 

system  can  be  obtained  by  writing  to  the  State  Relations  Service,  United  States 
Department  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Vocational  Education : 

'  Cf.  Trade  and  Industrial  Education,  Bulletin,  Federal  Board  for  Vocational 
Education,  October,  19 18;  The  Educational  Aspect  of  the  National  Labor 
Policy,  C.  A.  Prosser,  Bulletin  No.  247,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics, 
pp.  172-177;  Laws  of  Wisconsin  Relating  to  Vocational  Education,  Bulletin  No.  i, 
Wisconsin  State  Board  of  Vocational  Education  ;  Report  of  Committee  on  Industrial 
Education,  Proceedings  Twenty-second  Annual  Convention,  National  Association  of 
Manufacturers,  May  14-16,  1917,  p.  70. 
Highway  Construction : 

The  federal  and  state  legislation  under  which  cooperative  highway  construction 
is  carried  on  are  fully  described  in  the  Fourth  Biennial  Report,  Wisconsin  High- 
way Commission,  1918,  p.  16.  The  federal,  state,  and  county  governments  each 
contribute  about  one  third  of  the  expense,  the  state  directs  the  work,  and  the 
federal  government  sets  standards  through  its  Bureau  of  Public  Roads. 


224  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

such  a  council  was  provided  and  definite  authority  given  to 
it,  employers  would  not  be  hostile  to  the  Employment  Service 
merely  because  it  was  a  division  of  the  Department  of  Labor, 
as  they  have  been  in  the  past.  It  would  give  them  real,  rather 
than  nominal,  participation  in  the  management  of  the  Service. 

This  council  should  meet  regularly,  should  have  a  permanent 
secretary,  and  should  be  the  agency  through  which  complaints 
and  suggestions  for  the  improvement  of  the  Service  would  be 
given  consideration  and  attention.  It  should  have  power  to 
suggest  changes  in  the  personnel  of  the  executive  staff  or  in  the 
poHcies  of  the  Service ;  should  be  consulted  in  the  selection  of 
the  director  general ;  should  cooperate  with  the  director  general 
in  preparing  the  budget  of  the  Service  and  the  distribution  of 
its  funds  to  the  different  parts  of  the  work ;  it  should  have  the 
power  to  make  recommendations  to  Congress  for  the  develop- 
ment or  improvement  of  the  Service.  It  would  be  the  advisory 
body  to  which  the  director  general  would  turn  for  assistance  in 
working  out  difficult  executive  problems. 

A  sidelight  on  the  importance  of  an  adequate  representation 
of  the  employers,  the  wage  earners,  and  the  farmers,  on  a  national 
board  with  real  power,  is  furnished  by  the  nation's  experience 
with  the  federal  vocational  education  law.  A  committee 
reporting  at  the  191 7  meeting  of  the  National  Manufacturers' 
Association  said : 

"While  money  is  an  important  consideration  the  character  of  the 
controlling  authority  is  more  important.  Congress  has  decided, 
with  the  approval  of  the  President,  that  vocational  education  should 
be  directed  coi'pcratively  by  those  who  represent  the  vocations  to  be 
taught ;  who  from  life-long  experience  know  what  industry  is,  what 
are  its  opportunities  and  its  deepest  aspirations.  Thus  is  the  prin- 
ciple of  representative  government  extended  into  the  field  of  educa- 
tional administration.  Thus  is  it  recognized  that  the  hope  of  voca- 
tion lies  in  the  marshaling  of  every  interest  in  its  development.  Those 
who  own  the  places  of  employment,  those  who  work  in  them,  and 
those  who  teach,  must  unite  upon  terms  of  equaUty  and  each  con- 
tribute freely  according  to  its  experience  and  opportunity.  Here 
is  the  statute : 


A   FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE  225 

" '  Sec.  6.  That  a  Federal  Board  of  Vocational  Education  is  hereby 
created,  to  consist  of  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  the  Secretary  of 
Commerce,  the  Secretary  of  Labor,  the  United  States  Commissioner 
of  Education,  and  three  citizens  of  the  United  States  to  be  appointed 
by  the  President,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate. 
One  of  said  three  citizens  shall  be  a  representative  of  the  manu- 
facturing and  commercial  interests,  one  a  representative  of  the  agri- 
cultural interests,  and  one  a  representative  of  labor.  The  board 
shall  elect  annually  one  of  its  members  as  chairman. 

"'The  Commissioner  of  Education  may  make  such  recommen- 
dations to  the  board  from  time  to  time  as  he  deems  advisable. 

" 'It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  chairman  of  the  board  to  carry  out  the 
rules,  regulations,  and  decisions  which  the  board  may  adopt.  The 
Federal  Board  for  Vocational  Education  shall  have  power  to  employ 
such  assistants  as  may  be  necessary  to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  this 
Act.'     (Salary  of  appointed  members,  $5000.) 

"Never  before  has  there  been  such  unanimity  of  judgment  among 
the  great  social-economic  forces  of  the  nation  upon  a  matter  of  this 
kind.  The  principle  of  cooperative  representative  direction  was 
earnestly  supported  as  of  essential  consequence  by : 

"The  Chamber  of  Commerce  of  the  United  States  of  America,  with 
its  870  constituent  organizations  covering  every  state  and  including 
some  450,000  firms  and  corporations  in  its  membership;  The  Amer- 
ican Federation  of  Labor ;  The  National  Association  of  Manufactur- 
ers; The  Division  of  Superintendents,  National  Education  Asso- 
ciation, at  their  Detroit  meeting  last  year;  The  National  Society  for 
the  Promotion  of  Industrial  Education;  The  American  Home 
Economics  Association  ;   and  many  others. 

"That  organizations  of  such  different  interests,  and  especially  that 
the  National  Association  of  Manufacturers  and  the  American  Fed- 
eration of  Labor  arrived  at  a  common  judgment  in  this  matter,  was 
much  commented  upon  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  and  makes  the 
Federation's  report  of  interest."  * 

The  executive  direction  of  the  Service  should  be,  as  now,  in 
the  hands  of  a  director  general  and  an  assistant  director  general. 
The  director  general  should  be  named  by  the  President ;  or 
else  by  the  Secretary  of  Labor  from  a  list  of  persons  approved 

'  Report  of  Committee  on  Industrial  Education,  National  Association  of  Manu- 
facturers' Convention,  191 7,  P-  71- 
Q 


2  26  THE   LABOR   MARKET 

by  the  national  Council.  Within  the  Service  itself  the  director 
general  could  organize  a  staflf  council  to  include  the  heads  of 
the  different  divisions  of  the  Service,  which  would  meet  fre- 
quently and  work  out  administrative  problems  and  effect 
coordination  of  the  work  of  the  different  divisions.  This  lack 
of  coordination  was  one  of  the  vital  defects  of  the  war-time 
Service.  The  experience  of  large  corporations  has  demonstrated 
that  this  can  best  be  overcome  by  a  staff  council. 

The  Service  would  necessarily  carry  on  its  work  through  a 
number  of  national  divisions,  with  their  chiefs.  The  five  divi- 
sions which  obtain  in  the  United  States  Employment  Service 
at  the  present  time  may  be  the  satisfactory  solution  of  the 
internal  organization  of  the  central  office.  The  present  divisions 
are :  Control,  Field,  Organization,  Personnel,  and  Information. 
This  is  a  problem  which  belongs  to  the  central  employment 
service  council  for  its  final  solution. 

Each  state  director,  whether  a  federal  or  a  state  official, 
needs  a  state  advisory  board  to  help  him  select  his  staflf  and 
help  him  determine  his  policies.  This  board  would  also  present 
to  the  Federal  Council  or  to  the  director  general,  as  the  case 
might  be,  local  views  upon  policies  which  had  been  announced 
or  were  under  consideration  at  Washington.  The  state  board 
would  determine  the  localities  in  which  exchanges  should  be 
established,  and  the  policies  which  would  be  followed  in  the 
establishment  and  general  management  of  the  local  exchanges. 

These  state  advisory  boards  should,  in  our  judgment,  have 
a  more  comprehensive  representation  than  those  which  existed 
during  the  war  emergency.  The  employers  and  employees, 
the  state  department  of  labor,  the  educational  system,  the 
women  of  the  state,  and  possibly  other  groups  should  be  repre- 
sented. 

Each  employment  exchange,  should,  in  turn,  have  its  com- 
munity labor  boards  on  which  the  same  interests  might  be  repre- 
sented. I  do  not  believe  that  it  is  good  policy  to  make  a  list 
of  interests  to  be  represented  on  these  several  boards  which 
would  be  exclusive.  One  state  might  find  it  desirable  to  include 
representatives  of  certain  interests  on  its  boards  which  would 


A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE  227 

be  of  negligible  importance  in  another  state.  There  should 
be  a  minimum  list  with  the  right  reposing  in  each  board  to  add 
to  its  number  a  few  additional  persons  whose  service  it  considers 
of  importance. 

An  efficient  system  of  clearing  houses  is  of  first  importance. 
If  it  is  not  possible  to  secure  work  for  an  appUcant  in  the  dis- 
trict in  which  he  applies  for  work,  it  is  necessary  for  the  exchange 
manager  to  be  able  to  get  in  touch  with  opportunities  in  other 
localities.  This  can  only  be  accomplished  by  a  system  of  clear- 
ing houses  which  can  transfer  unfilled  orders  and  applications 
from  one  office  to  another.  Both  in  England  and  America 
clearance  methods  are  still  in  a  formative  and  experimental 
state,  and  it  will  take  some  years  to  develop  them  to  their  maxi- 
mum efTectiveness. 

Our  war-time  experience  apparently  demonstrated  that  the 
most  effective  plan  for  the  United  States  is  to  have  a  clearing 
house  in  each  state,  and  a  national  clearing  house  at  Washing- 
ton, without  any  intervening  district  clearing  houses.  Large 
cities  like  New  York  and  Chicago  need  municipal  clearing 
houses  to  transfer  orders  from  one  office  to  another  within  the 
city  or  county.  But  in  a  majority  of  the  states  only  state 
clearance  is  needed.  The  functions  and  operations  of  employ- 
ment clearing  houses  can  be  best  described  by  description  of 
typical  clearing  houses  operated  in  the  United  States  Employ- 
ment Service. 

A  city,  divided  into  a  number  of  districts  with  an  employment 
exchange  in  each  district,  required  each  exchange  to  register  its 
unfilled  orders  and  appHcations  at  the  clearing  house  when  they 
had  been  on  its  files  for  one  hour.  This  prompt  clearance  is 
necessary  because,  as  Boyd  Fisher  once  remarked,  "When  an 
employer  wants  a  man,  he  wants  him  yesterday,"  while  idle 
workmen  want  the  quickest  possible  placement.  The  clearing 
house  immediately  checked  the  order  for  men  with  its  listed 
applications  for  work,  and  if  it  found  that  office  A  i,  for  instance, 
had  notified  the  clearing  house  that  it  had  men  seeking  the  kind 
of  work  offered,  it  immediately  notified  A  i  to  get  in  touch  with 
the  office  which  had  just  registered  its  unfilled  order.     If  the 


228  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

clearing  house  found  that  no  appHcations  had  been  listed  with 
it  from  workmen  of  the  type  sought,  it  notified  those  local  ex- 
changes which  it  had  learned  by  experience  were  most  liable 
to  obtain  such  men  so  that  they  could  get  in  touch  with  the 
oflSce  holding  the  order  as  soon  as  they  found  the  men. 

The  clearing  house  in  this  city  classified  the  industries  in 
eleven  divisions,  and  had  one  clerk  assigned  to  each.  All  calls 
came  in  at  a  central  switchboard,  with  eleven  extensions  running 
to  the  eleven  divisions,  and  were  switched  to  the  proper  division. 
One  division,  to  illustrate,  had  charge  of  Building  and  Construc- 
tion and  Building  Maintenance.  The  clerk  in  this  division 
received  calls  for  or  from  bricklayers,  cable  testers,  carpenters, 
electricians,  masons,  lathers,  painters,  paper  hangers,  pipe  and 
steam  fitters,  plumbers,  riggers,  roofers,  structural  iron  workers, 
wiremen,  and  building  laborers.  These  were  all  included  under 
Building  and  Construction.  He  also  received  orders  and  appli- 
cations for  elevator  operators,  engineers,  firemen,  janitors,  oilers, 
porters,  repairmen,  switchboard  operators,  watchmen,  and 
window  cleaners.     These  came  under  Building  Maintenance. 

Each  night  each  local  ofiice  notified  the  clearing  house  of 
all  unfilled  orders  and  applications  on  its  books  and  the  next 
morning  a  daily  bulletin  listing  them  all  was  sent  to  each  of 
the  local  exchanges,  with  a  code  letter  indicating  the  office  where 
each  appHcation  of  employer  or  employee  was  on  file,  and  the 
probable  wage  to  be  paid.  The  exchange  managers  could  then 
call  directly  any  other  exchange  which  was  able  to  fill  its  needs. 

Local  clearance  is  simplified  by  the  fact  that  workmen  apply- 
ing at  any  one  of  the  local  exchanges  are  interested,  as  a  rule, 
in  opportunities  in  any  part  of  the  city.  It  is  easy  to  transfer 
orders  from  one  exchange  to  another.  But  the  situation  is 
much  different  when  clearance  is  attempted  on  a  state  or  a  na- 
tional basis.  A  large  percentage  of  the  applicants  who  appear 
at  any  exchange  do  not  desire  to  go  out  of  the  city.  Many  of 
those  who  are  willing  to  leave  the  city  are  very  particular  where 
they  go.  Some  will  go  only  to  certain  towns  or  localities ;  others 
have  prejudices  against  particular  places  but  will  go  anywhere 
else.    The  workman  who  goes  out  of  town  incurs  expense  of 


A  FEDERAL   EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  229 

time  and  money  in  traveling ;  he  has  no  opportunity  to  talk 
with  the  employer,  or  to  see  the  workplace,  or  become  ac- 
quainted with  living  and  recreational  conditions  in  the  locahty, 
before  he  makes  his  final  decision.  The  duration  of  the  work, 
the  cost  of  board  and  lodging,  the  healthfulness  of  the  work- 
place, the  promptness  of  the  employer  in  paying  wages  due, 
the  severity  of  the  work,  and  many  other  questions  arise  in  the 
worker's  mind  when  he  is  asked  to  leave  town.  Workmen 
who  accept  out  of  town  opportunities  without  such  detailed 
inquiry  and  such  natural  hesitation  are  the  roving,  migratory 
type  who  do  not  "stick"  when  they  get  to  the  job.  "Easy 
come,  easy  go,"  is  a  description  frequently  applied  to  workmen 
who  thus  easily  accept  such  opportunities. 

The  theory  that  orders  for  men  taken  in  one  town  and  appli- 
cations for  work  taken  in  another  can  be  brought  together  in 
a  state  or  national  clearing  house  and  men  and  jobs  fitted  to- 
gether in  the  clearing  house  does  not  work  in  practice.  Clear- 
ance on  that  plan  was  tried  during  the  war  emergency,  but  it  was 
found  that  men  cannot  be  "  cleared  "  over  large  areas  in  a  central 
clearing  house  as  checks  from  country  banks  are  "cleared"  in 
a  Chicago  or  New  York  clearing  house.  The  state  or  national 
clearing  house  must  accompHsh  its  results  in  most  cases  by 
notifying  a  local  exchange  in  one  city  what  local  exchange  in 
another  city  is  apparently  able  to  fill  its  needs,  and  then  allow- 
ing the  local  exchanges  to  make  the  transfer  of  men  by  direct 
communication  between  themselves,  generally  by  telephone 
or  telegraph.  The  local  exchange  which  has  an  order  for  men 
can  thus  give  the  exchange  which  has  the  applicants  the  details 
of  the  job  —  occupations,  wages,  hours,  duration,  cost  of  board, 
age  limits,  whether  employer  will  pay  transportation,  —  and 
the  applicants  can  then  be  intelligently  interviewed  on  their 
fitness  and  desire  for  the  work,  and  sent  to  the  job  with  some 
assurance  of  satisfaction  to  them  and  to  the  employer.  Clear- 
ance which  tries  to  handle  laborers  by  methods  used  in  bank 
or  commercial  clearing  exchanges  will  fail. 

A  state  clearing  house  must  necessarily  use  the  long-distance 
telephone  and  telegraph  freely.     Quick  clearance  cannot  be 


230  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

obtained  by  mail,  and  slow  clearance  fails  in  a  large  percentage 
of  cases.  The  mail  can  be  used,  however,  to  send  daily  bulletins 
to  each  local  exchange  in  the  area,  listing  all  unfilled  orders  and 
applications  in  each  exchange  in  the  state,  the  several  exchanges 
being  designated  by  a  code  number.  This  enables  each  ex- 
change to  call  by  telephone  any  other  exchange  which  seems 
able  to  fill  one  or  more  of  its  unfilled  applications  for  help  or  for 
employment. 

The  daily  bulletin  issued  by  one  of  the  state  clearing  houses 
during  the  war  listed  orders  for  men  and  applications  for  work 
in  the  following  manner : 

J.  —  457  —  AL        10  unskilled  machine  hands 

Wages  —  37  cents  per  hour  to  start 

50  hours  per  week 

Age  limit  60  years 

Board  $7  to  $9  per  week 
J.  is  code  for  job ;  AL  for  the  name  of  the  exchange. 

An  employee's  application  was  listed  thus : 

A  120  CL  Poultry  man 

Married ;   50  years  of  age 
Salary  desired,  $100  per  month 
All  around  experience  and  very  successful 
Knowledge     of    farming.     Prefers     community 
hatchery 

These  bulletins  were  sent  to  every  exchange  in  the  state,  and 
if  exchange  "M"  should  have  an  order  for,  the  poultryman  just 
described  it  would  immediately  telephone  to  "CL"  the  details 
of  its  position  and  have  "CL"  interview  the  applicant.  If  an 
engagement  was  effected,  the  applicant  would  then  be  sent  by 
"CL"  to  "M"  or  directly  to  the  employer. 

The  various  exchanges  notify  the  clearing  house  of  the  filling 
of  positions  listed  in  the  bulletins  and  they  are  then  listed  as 
cancellations  in  the  next  bulletin. 

Sometimes  orders  came  to  a  local  exchange  for  a  much  larger 
number  of  workers  than  could  be  obtained  in  one  town,  and 


A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  231 

such  orders  were  immediately  telephoned  in  detail  to  the  clear- 
ing house,  which  then  spht  up  the  order  among  the  various 
local  exchanges,  giving  each  a  quota  to  ship.  The  quota  of 
each  exchange  was  determined  by  the  capacity  which  the  ex- 
change had  revealed  in  the  past  to  secure  the  particular  type 
of  workmen  needed. 

The  national  clearing  house  will  probably  never  play  as 
intimate  a  part  in  placement  in  America  as  the  state  clearing 
house.  Its  principal  function  will  probably  consist  in  its  inti- 
mate knowledge  of  employment  conditions  in  every  part  of 
the  country  and  its  bulletins  of  information  transmitting  that 
knowledge  to  the  several  states.  It  will  function  in  placement 
only  when  large  enterprises  in  some  particular  locality  are  un- 
able to  secure  enough  men  within  their  own  state,  and  the  state 
clearing  house  requests  the  national  to  discover  men  for  it  in 
other  localities ;  or  in  periods  of  unemployment  when  it  may  be 
able  to  direct  men  who  are  idle  to  opportunities  of  employment 
in  other  states.  Its  method  of  functioning  will  necessarily 
be  the  same  as  that  of  the  state  office.  It  will  direct  the  atten- 
tion of  the  clearing  house  of  a  state  with  unfilled  labor  needs, 
to  the  clearing  house  of  the  particular  state  or  states  which  are 
able  to  fill  those  needs,  and  then  allow  the  two  state  offices  to 
arrange  the  detail  of  the  hiring  and  transfer  of  the  men  between 
themselves. 

2.  Functions  of  the  Employment  Service 

The  preceding  chapter  has  made  it  unnecessary  to  discuss 
at  length  the  functions  of  a  public  employment  service.  The 
fundamental  purpose  of  the  Service  should  be  the  reduction 
of  unemployment  and  irregular  employment,  the  equipment  of 
industry  with  an  adequate  labor  force  for  all  its  needs,  and 
the  conservation  of  the  working  efficiency  of  the  wage  earners 
of  the  nation.  These  objectives  can  be  attained  only  by  a 
broad,  constructive  pohcy.  The  Service  must  have  efficient 
machinery  for  listing  all  men  in  need  of  work,  for  examining 
carefully  into  their  capacities  and  desires,  for  securing  accurate 
knowledge  of  employers'  needs,  and  for  making  a  discriminating 


232  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

selection  of  men  and  women  to  fill  the  various  positions  which 
are  open. 

It  must  seek  to  dovetail  the  labor  needs  of  the  industries 
in  each  locality  so  that  the  wage  earners  in  each  community- 
will  have  the  steadiest  possible  employment,  and  the  employers 
a  reliable  labor  force.  It  must  make  a  constructive,  definite 
attack  on  the  problem  of  labor  turnover  in  each  locality,  by 
stud5dng  the  plants  or  enterprises  in  each  line  of  business  to 
discover  what  the  actual  turnover  is,  the  seasons  when  it  is 
highest,  its  causes,  and  the  measures  which  promise  its  reduc- 
tion. This  knowledge,  carefully  analyzed,  must  be  made  avail- 
able to  the  employers  of  the  state  and  of  the  nation.  The  Em- 
ployment Service  must  attack  the  problem  of  labor  turnover 
reduction  just  as  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Mines  and  other 
public  services  are  attacking  accident  prevention  and  fire  pre- 
vention. Compilation  of  accurate  data  on  the  number  of  idle 
workmen  and  upon  the  unfilled  positions  in  each  locality  with 
the  forecasts  which  can  be  made  by  managers  of  the  various 
exchanges,  will  enable  the  government  to  disseminate  accurate 
information  continually  upon  the  state  of  the  labor  market, 
which  information  will  be  of  assistance  to  workers  in  need  of 
employment,  to  employers  in  planning  their  business,  and  to 
legislative  bodies. 

One  of  the  important  functions  of  an  employment  exchange, 
which  should  be  clearly  recognized  and  included  within  its 
pohcy,  is  the  education  of  employers  and  employees  in  practices 
that  will  decrease  labor  turnover  and  reduce  unemployment. 
But  the  employment  man  cannot  teach  what  he  does  not  know. 
He  must  watch  closely  and  discriminatingly  the  ebb  and  flow 
of  employment  in  the  various  industries  and  establishments  of 
his  community.  He  and  his  force  must  be  constantly  on  the 
alert  to  discover  why  workmen  are  quitting  or  being  discharged 
in  the  several  establishments.  He  must  find  out  what  indus- 
tries are  thriving  and  offer  opportunity  to  young  workers, 
and  what  industries  in  the  area  served  are  decaying.  He  must 
learn  what  influences  are  sapping  the  industrial  efl&ciency  of 
wage  earners.    And  having  discovered  remediable  defects  or 


A   FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  233 

policies  which  should  be  altered,  he  should  utilize  every  oppor- 
tunity to  impress  the  facts  ascertained  upon  the  individual 
employer  and  employee,  upon  assembled  employers,  employ- 
ment managers,  or  employees  at  their  gatherings,  and  through 
the  public  press.  But  his  criticisms  must  be  constructive, 
not  vague ;  and  they  must  be  accomplished  by  definite  sugges- 
tions of  a  better  way.^ 

An  important  reform  in  industry  which  can  be  definitely 
encouraged  by  the  pubHc  Service  is  the  establishment  of  special- 
ized employment  departments  in  all  concerns  employing  any 
considerable  number  of  wage  workers.  Where  the  plant  is 
too  small  to  have  a  salaried  employment  manager,  one  of  the 
members  of  the  firm  should  be  encouraged  to  handle  all  hiring 
and  discharging.  The  centralization  of  the  employment  func- 
tion in  the  hands  of  an  ofiicial  who  makes  that  his  entire  busi- 
ness will  tend  to  decrease  the  labor  turnover  and  improve  the 
average  efficiency  of  the  workers  of  each  establishment,  will 
decrease  the  temptation  to  maintain  decentralized  labor  re- 
serves, and  will  cause  each  plant  to  study  the  labor  conditions 
within  its  own  plant.  Moreover,  it  provides  an  avenue  through 
which  up-to-date  information  on  employment  practice  can  be 
brought  into  the  practice  of  the  individual  concerns.  The  em- 
ployer is  the  strategic  person  through  whom  effective  reforms 
in  our  employment  situation  must  be  attained.  Without  his 
intelligent  cooperation  we  can  make  little  headway.  The  plant 
employment  manager  is  the  most  effective  means  of  winning 
this  cooperation. 

The  Service  must  undertake  the  function  of  vocational 
guidance.2    The  employes  in  the  several  local  exchanges  should 

•  The  author  has  treated  this  question  in  more  detail  in  "The  Employment  Service 
as  a  Means  of  Public  Education,"  Industrial  ManaRemcnl,  April,  iqiq,  p.  318. 

2  Cf.  references  on  British  Employment  Exchange  at  end  of  Chapter  X.  Cf. 
also  Vocational  Guidance  and  Public  Employment  Offices,  Hilda  Mulhauser, 
Bulletin  iq2,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics;  The  Placing  of  Women  by 
Public  Employment  Offices,  Louis  C.  Odencrantz,  ibid.,  p.  122;  Symposium,  Bul- 
letin 220,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics;  The  Educational  Aspect  o£ 
the  National  Labor  Policy,  Charles  A.  Prosser,  ibid. 

An  interesting  experiment  in  the  vocational  guidance  <^f  minors  is  licing  con- 
ducted (during  1919)  at  Pittsburgh  in  connection  with  the  Junior  Section  of  the 


234  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

be  constantly  directing  workmen  into  positions  in  which  they 
can  earn  a  better  or  steadier  livelihood,  guiding  young  persons 
into  industries  in  which  there  is  an  opportunity  for  them  when 
they  become  adults,  cooperating  with  the  public  school  system 
in  the  vocational  direction  of  those  who  are  leaving  the  schools 
to  enter  employment.  The  Service  should  be  able  to  provide 
very  definite  information  to  guide  the  federal,  state,  and  local 
governments  in  the  inauguration  or  carrying  on  of  public  build- 
ing or  construction  enterprises,  so  that  these  undertakings  would 
be  carried  on  at  times  when  employment  is  slack  in  the  general 
labor  market.  In  this  way,  as  well  as  by  dovetailing  of  employ- 
ments, the  Service  can  materially  assist  in  reducing  the  total 
annual  amount  of  unemployment. 

The  vocational  guidance  of  adults  is  an  important  part  of 
this  work,  —  more  important  than  we  have  realized.  Con- 
siderable attention  has  been  directed  to  the  guidance  of  children, 
with  a  tacit  assumption  that  adults  do  not  need  guidance. 
This  is  far  from  the  truth.  They  need  help  in  finding  the  kind 
of  work  they  are  fitted  for,  which  is  often  not  the  kind  they 
think  they  are  fitted  for. 

3.   Policies  of  Management 

Our  public  employment  experience  has  not  developed  far 
enough  to  produce  solutions  of  many  practical  questions  of 
employment  exchange  management,  but  some  fundamental 
principles  are  clear.  The  employment  exchange  should  be 
operated  at  as  low  an  expense  as  is  consistent  with  efficiency. 
The  cheapest  service  is  not  necessarily  the  most  economical, 
nor  is  the  most  expensive  necessarily  the  most  efficient.  It  is  a 
type  of  business  enterprise  in  which  expenses  can  be  increased 
very  rapidly  without  commensurate  results  if  great  care  is  not 
exercised  in  the  financial  management.  The  financial  leak  may 
occur  in  a  number  of  different  ways,  but  is  principally  found  in 
an  excessive  number  of  employees  in  the  exchange.    There  is 

United  States  Employment  Service,  in  which  the  public  schools  and  the  service 
are  cooperating.  Sound  scientific  and  business  principles  for  this  sort  of  work  are 
being  developed. 


A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  235 

a  marked  fluctuation  in  the  amount  of  work  which  such  an 
exchange  does  in  the  different  months  in  the  year,  and  it  ordi- 
narily has  more  men  on  its  payroll  in  winter  months  than  it 
really  needs.  It  would  be  better  to  allow  the  entire  force  to 
work  an  hour  a  day  longer  in  the  busiest  season  and  shorten 
their  hours  commensurately  in  the  dull  season,  or  to  obtain 
help  for  two  or  three  months  in  the  busy  season  to  supplement 
the  regular  force,  and  keep  the  regular  force  smaller,  than  to 
carry  as  large  a  force  at  all  times  as  is  needed  at  the  time  of 
greatest  rush.  In  other  words,  the  employment  service  itself 
is  a  seasonal  industry  and  should  plan  to  vary  its  force  at  some 
points  with  the  seasonal  fluctuation  in  business.  The  correct 
way  to  do  this  is  to  arrange  for  the  transfer  of  federal  or  state 
employees  from  other  departments  to  the  employment  service 
to  meet  its  rush  periods. 

We  have  already  suggested  that  quality  is  the  prime  test  of 
the  efficiency  of  employment  service.  The  financial  problem 
faced  by  every  office  is  essentially  that  of  giving  efficient  service 
in  large  volume  at  a  minimum  of  expense.  The  better  the  qual- 
ity of  service  the  greater  the  cost  of  each  placement.  The  test 
of  efficiency  which  has  been  widely  applied  to  public  employ- 
ment exchanges  in  the  United  States,  —  a  low  average  cost 
per  placement  —  is  fundamentally  unsound.  The  test  had 
its  origin  in  a  report  presented  to  a  state  legislature  by  the  super- 
intendents of  one  of  our  state  employment  systems,  who  showed 
that  the  average  cost  per  capita  of  placements  in  their  offices 
was  far  below  a  dollar.  The  idea  was  picked  up  by  the  state 
offices  of  other  commonwealths  because  of  its  effectiveness  as 
an  argument  in  legislative  bodies,  and  we  have  had  to  witness 
a  competition  between  the  state  offices  in  reducing  their  per 
capita  instead  of  in  improving  their  service.  Minnesota,  for 
instance,  proudly  exhibited  a  per  capita  cost  of  but  nineteen 
cents  per  placement,  but  those  who  know  the  facts  behind  the 
figures  know  that  fully  ninety  per  cent  of  the  placements  were 
casuals  who  worked  but  a  few  hours  or  a  day,  that  the  same 
man  or  woman  was  sent  out  several  times  each  week,  that  the 
offices  were  almost  entirely  serving  ne'er-do-wells  whom  the 


236  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

employment  oflScials  themselves  held  in  contempt.  The  per 
capita  cost  test  of  efficiency  emphasizes  the  number  of  place- 
ments, not  the  quality.  Any  one  can  see,  on  a  moment's  thought, 
that  the  placement  of  one  honest,  industrious  workman  in  a 
steady  job  is  more  important  than  sending  two  hundred  casuals 
out  to  work  long  enough  to  get  a  dollar  or  two  to  buy  their 
liquor  and  something  to  ward  off  starvation. 

But  the  placement  of  casuals  makes  impressive  statistics,  while 
the  placement  of  steady  workers  makes  hard  work  and  costs 
money.  //  takes  time  to  fit  a  machine  operator,  a  stenographer, 
a  farm  hand,  a  bookkeeper,  or  even  good  common  laborers  into 
steady  jobs.  The  employer's  needs  have  to  be  examined,  the 
employee's  questions  have  to  be  answered,  selection  must  be 
exercised. 

An  employment  system  is  a  service  organization.  It  creates 
no  commodity ;  like  the  barber  shop  or  a  hotel,  it  simply  serves 
certain  human  needs.  Mere  quantity  of  service  is  never  satis- 
factory. When  we  get  to  a  hotel  or  a  barber  shop  we  want 
quaUty  in  service.  When  an  employer  patronizes  an  employ- 
ment office  he  wants  intelligent,  discriminating  personal  service. 
He  wants  the  employment  office  to  get  the  kind  of  help  that  he 
wants  and  that  will  fit  into  his  organization.  When  an  employee 
goes  to  the  exchange,  he  wants  to  be  placed  in  a  job  for  which 
he  is  adapted  and  which  serves  his  interests.  He  is  not  satis- 
fied wath  just  having  any  job.  In  the  long  run,  it  is  the  adver- 
tising of  the  satisfied  customer  which  determines  the  success 
of  any  service  industry.  This  fact  cannot  be  too  deeply  im- 
pressed upon  the  local  examiners. 

These  considerations  lead  us  to  state  formally  as  one  of  the 
cardinal  financial  principles  of  a  satisfactory  employment  serv- 
ice that  quality,  not  quantity,  should  be  the  goal  in  placement 
work;  and  economy,  not  parsimony,  the  financial  motive.  A 
good  employment  service  should,  under  normal  industrial  condi- 
tions, have  a  decreasing  number  of  placements,  as  it  fits  a  larger 
and  larger  percentage  of  the  wage  earners  into  relatively  steady 
work. 

Quality  in  an  employment  service  means  more  than  the  faith- 


A   FEDERAL   EMPLOYMENT   SERVICE  237 

ful  performance  of  the  business  which  comes  to  the  desk  of  the 
staff.  If  the  personnel  in  a  public  employment  exchange  are 
"clock workers"  and  "duty  workers, "  the  exchange  has  a  limited 
future.  It  is  essential  that  they  be  actuated  by  a  keen  desire 
to  attain  the  maximum  in  service,  and  be  ready  to  do  anything 
which  improves  employment  conditions,  whether  the  work  done 
will  improve  their  statistical  report  or  not.  Initiative  is  at  a 
premium ;    the  spirit  of  self-forgetfulness  indispensable. 

The  widest  personal  contact  with  employers,  civic  and  labor 
organizations,  and  with  the  general  economic  and  civic  life  of 
the  community  is  an  important  part  of  the  manager's  work. 
It  enlarges  his  business  and  equips  him  with  that  expert  knowl- 
edge of  his  community  which  is  indispensable  in  an  efficient 
exchange. 

Impartiality  between  employers  and  employees  is  essential. 
This  does  not  imply  that  the  employment  officer  must  be  with- 
out convictions  or  surrender  his  conscience.  But  it  does  imply 
that  he  must  not  be  actuated  by  prejudices.  A  clear  bias  will 
neutralize  his  influence. 

Fairness  and  cooperation  with  the  employers  and  employees 
does  not  require  the  employment  official  to  curry  favor  with 
them.  His  influence  will  be  greater  if  he  is  fearless  and  inde- 
pendent and  insists  on  the  courtesy  and  respect  due  a  govern- 
ment service.  State  employment  officials  have  demonstrated 
in  a  number  of  cases  which  have  come  under  our  observation 
involving  large  employers  that  a  firm  insistence  that  employers 
conform  to  the  rules  of  the  service  and  abide  by  the  terms  offered 
to  the  workers  in  the  employer's  application  to  the  exchange  for 
men,  has  resulted  in  compliance  and  an  increased  respect  for 
the  service.  Employees,  on  the  other  hand,  must  be  made  to  under- 
stand that  they  cannot  disregard  their  obligations.  It  must  be 
made  clear  to  them  that  the  service  will  expect  them  to  live 
up  to  their  contracts,  stay  on  the  job,  and  give  honest  work; 
and  that  those  who  do  not  do  so  will  be  discriminated  against 
in  the  assignment  of  jobs.  This  is  particularly  important  in 
dealing  with  those  classes  of  labor  which  do  irregular  work. 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  about  the  degree  of  re- 


238  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

sponsibility  which  should  be  assumed  by  the  pubHc  employ- 
ment exchange  when  placing  workers.  We  have  shown  that 
the  English  exchanges  started  out  with  the  theory  that  the  em- 
ployment exchange  is  a  place  where  information  is  given  out; 
that  it  is  a  means  of  directing  employers  to  available  men  and 
directing  workers  to  openings,  and  that  it  should  not  and  can- 
not try  to  select  workmen  for  employers.^  In  other  words,  it 
dispenses  information  rather  than  positions.  Some  American 
authorities  have  taken  the  same  position.^  Theoretically, 
they  are  probably  correct.  Practically,  we  do  not  believe 
that  an  employment  office  can  avoid  making  definite  selections. 
The  employer  expects  the  office  to  send  him  a  man  competent 
to  fill  the  position.  In  a  large  number  of  cases,  he  does  not 
desire  to  have  to  pass  judgment  on  the  man  sent  to  him.  Those 
large  employers  who  have  speciaHzed  employment  departments 
and  a  percentage  of  other  employers  desire  to  reserve  the  power 
of  selection  or  rejection  to  themselves.  But  most  employers 
expect  the  employment  office  to  be  able  to  sift  the  workers  for 
them.  They  rely  on  it  for  expert  service.  Their  test  of  the 
efficiency  of  the  exchange  is  its  capacity  to  obtain  and  select 
good  workmen  for  them.  The  exchange  must,  in  any  case, 
exercise  some  judgment  on  the  men  it  sends  to  employers,  and 
patrons  of  the  exchange  do  not  make  nice  discrimination  as  to 
the  exact  amount  of  responsibihty  which  the  exchange  ought 
to  assume. 

The  workers,  on  the  other  hand,  often  resent  being  sent  out 
to  be  picked  over.  Fruitless  trips  waste  their  time,  strength, 
self-respect,  carfare,  and  opportunities  to  get  other  positions. 
They  believe  that  the  exchange  ought  to  know  what  sort  of  men 
the  employer  wants  and  be  able  to  select  the  person  who  will 
fill  the  vacancy. 

Experience  has  demonstrated  that  the  employment  exchange 
manager  has  to  assume  responsibility  for  the  quality  of  men 

1  Cf.  "The  British  Labor  Exchanges,"  B.  Lasker,  Bulletin  No.  206,  The  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  p.  15. 

'  Op.  oil.,  pp.  17-18.  Cf.  "Public  Employment  Offices  in  Theory  and  Practice," 
Wm.  M.  Leiserson,  in  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  May,  1914. 


A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  239 

sent  to  the  employers.  On  the  other  hand,  in  the  cases  of 
failure  of  workers  to  get  employment  to  which  they  are  sent 
the  office  is  held  responsible,  unless  they  have  specifically  in- 
formed the  workers  that  the  employers  specifically  reserved  the 
function  of  selection  to  themselves.  Ordinarily,  the  office 
should  assume  that  the  responsibility  of  selection  of  individuals 
rests  upon  it.  Even  in  those  cases  where  it  does  not  bear  the 
full  responsibility,  the  office  ought  to  avoid  sending  out  any 
workman  unless  they  believe  he  has  a  reasonable  chance  of 
being  hired  and  kept.  "After  all,"  says  Mr.  Bruno  Lasker, 
"  the  purpose  of  a  national  system  of  labor  exchanges  is  not 
merely  to  effect  as  many  placements  as  possible,  but  to  make 
placements  satisfactory  both  to  employers  and  employees,"  and 
he  finds  that  one  of  the  defects  of  the  English  system  during 
its  early  years  was  the  failure  of  managers  to  be  careful  in 
their  selections.  Experience  has  made  the  exchanges  realize 
more  and  more  the  degree  to  which  they  are  held  responsible. 
It  is  of  course  tfue  that  the  final  decision  must  in  all  cases  rest 
with  the  employer  l^and  employee.  If,  when  the  man  arrives, 
the  employer  finds  that  the  exchange  has  not  really  sent  the 
kind  of  man  he  is  looking  for,  he  must  of  necessity  retain  the 
right  to  refuse  to  hire  him.  Similarly,  the  workman  must  re- 
tain the  right  to  refuse  to  go  to  work  if  he  finds  on  arrival  that 
the  position  is  not  one  that  he  wants. 

Strikes  have  given  employment  exchanges  a  knotty  problem, 
but  the  majority  of  experienced  employment  men  seem  to  agree 
that  the  principle  which  obtains  in  England  and  in  most  of  the 
state  exchanges  in  the  United  States  is  the  correct  one.  They 
accept  orders  for  men  from  employers  during  a  strike,  but  re- 
quire the  employer  to  give  the  essential  information  about  the 
strike  from  his  point  of  view  and  give  opportunity  to  the  strikers 
to  present  the  facts  to  the  office  from  their  point  of  view,  and 
then  give  this  information  to  the  workmen  who  apply  for  jobs 
at  that  plant.  Some  exchanges,  in  order  to  avoid  any  misun- 
derstanding, stamp  the  words  "Strike  on"  on  the  introduction 
cards  which  they  give  to  workmen  when  they  send  them  to  the 
job. 


240  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Secretary  of  Labor  William  B.  Wilson  does  not  agree  with 
this  policy.  He  said,  in  an  address  on  the  subject  at  Washing- 
ton on  April  25,  1919:  ^  "If  there  was  an  industrial  dispute  in 
existence,  we  would  not  be  the  agency  through  which  labor 
could  be  furnished  to  that  industrial  dispute.  We  take  this 
ground  with  respect  to  industrial  disputes : 

"That  there  is  a  sufi&cient  supply  of  labor  there  if  a  strike  is  going 
on.  The  labor  is  competent  to  perform  the  work  that  is  required,  as 
has  been  evidenced  by  the  fact  that  it  has  been  doing  it,  and  to  send 
workers  from  some  other  community,  however  near  or  far,  into  a 
community  where  there  is  already  a  suflScient  supply  of  labor  of  the 
necessary  skill,  is  simply  to  create  a  compUcation,  a  surplus  of  labor, 
one  of  the  things  that  are  to  be  avoided,  and  where  a  labor  dispute  is 
on,  it  is  not  a  question  for  our  Employment  Service  to  deal  with ; 
it  is  not  a  matter  for  it  to  handle.  It  is  a  question  for  our  Conciliation 
Service  to  deal  with,  and  when  the  Conciliation  Service  has  success- 
fully handled  the  problem,  then  you  have  the  workers  there,  ready 
to  go  on  with  the  work.  That  has  been  our  attitude  with  regard  to 
industrial  disputes." 

4.  Training  the  Personnel 

It  is  essential  that  the  employees  in  each  exchange  shall  have 
adequate  training  and  preparation  for  their  work.  This  can 
be  obtained  in  many  ways.  There  should  be  in  the  state  serv- 
ice in  each  state  one  person  or  more  who  has  a  thorough 
training  in  economics  and  in  the  underlying  causes  of  the  em- 
ployment problem,  who  has  taken  training  in  employment  man- 
agement in  one  of  the  technical  schools  or  universities,  and  who 
has  had  opportunity  to  study  at  first  hand  the  best  managed 
employment  ofl5ces,  both  public  and  corporation  managed, 
in  the  United  States.  He  should  master  the  technique  of 
employment  work  and  then  devise  means  of  training  and  con- 
tinually improving  every  person  in  the  force. 

The  regular  staff  conference  in  which  the  entire  force  meets 

1  At  a  conference  on  employment  legislation  called  by  the  United  States  Employ- 
ment Service.  We  quote  from  memorandum  released  to  newspapers  by  the 
Department  of  Labor. 


A  FEDERAL  EMPLOYMENT  SERVICE  241 

every  week  or  two  for  the  discussion  of  the  problems  which 
come  up  in  the  daily  work  is  important.  The  exchange  manager 
should  keep  himself  informed  on  general  conditions  through- 
out the  country  and  upon  the  literature  of  employment  and  be 
able  to  give  his  staff  some  of  this  information  at  each  of  the 
staff  meetings.  Another  useful  device  is  to  have  experts  on 
employment,  under  the  general  supervision  of  the  state  advisory 
board,  select  pamphlets,  magazine  articles,  or  other  printed  or 
typewritten  material,  and  have  it  circulated  from  office  to  office 
over  the  state.  The  material  would  remain  in  each  office  for 
two  or  three  days  and  then  be  sent  on  to  the  next  office  in  the 
circuit.  The  state  director  would  hold  each  exchange  manager 
responsible  for  seeing  that  each  member  of  the  staff  reads  the 
article  while  it  is  in  the  office. 

One  of  the  vital  defects  in  American  public  employment 
exchanges  up  to  the  present  time  has  been  an  inadequate  knowl- 
edge of  the  problem  they  were  attacking.  The  managers  and 
their  assistants  have,  in  a  large  percentage  of  cases,  lacked 
vision.  They  have  occupied  their  thought  with  details  in  office 
management  and  neglected  the  formulation  of  policies.  The 
details  cannot  be  neglected,  but  neither  can  the  policies.  They 
have  not  tried  to  understand  the  causes  of  irregular  employ- 
ment, the  reason  why  some  men  will  not  work  steadily,  or  the 
many  other  basic  problems  of  their  business.  They  have  not 
realized  the  need  for  a  comprehensive  organization  of  the  labor 
market  or  the  part  they  should  play  in  it.  They  have  not  seen 
how  intimately  their  work  is  related  to  the  civic,  political, 
and  moral,  as  well  as  the  industrial,  life  of  their  communities. 


CHAPTER  XII 
THE  EMPLOYMENT  DEPARTMENT 

The  United  States  was  at  war.  It  had  given  a  contract 
to  a  manufacturer  for  cannon.  Rapid  production  of  war  sup- 
plies was  essential  to  victory.  A  man  hired  as  an  all-round 
tool  maker  was  told  to  bore  a  seventy-five  millimeter  gun.  He 
said  to  the  job  boss,  "Come  and  give  me  some  pointers."  Said 
the  job  boss,  "Weren't  you  hired  as  an  all-round  tool  maker?" 
"Yes."  "Then  bore  that  or  get  out."  He  got  out,  and  later 
explained  that  he  was  an  all-round  tool  maker,  but  had  never 
seen  a  modern  cannon  before  and  did  not  propose  to  spoil  the 
first  one.^  He  could  have  been  trained  in  a  single  day  or  less 
to  continued  high  production.  As  it  was,  the  company  lost  a 
good  and  conscientious  worker,  whom  they  had  spent  $50  in 
securing,  production  was  delayed,  and  they  had  to  go  out  and 
spend  another  $50  or  more  seeking  a  substitute. 

The  employment  policies  which  obtain  within  industry  are 
as  important  as  those  which  obtain  in  the  public  employment 
market.  The  nation  can  organize  machinery  for  the  mobili- 
zation, distribution,  and  placement  of  labor;  but  only  the 
employer  can  organize  the  machinery  which  will  fit  each  worker 
into  the  exact  job  for  which  he  is  best  adapted,  assist  him  to 
increase  his  productive  capacity,  and  retain  him  in  the  estab- 
lishment. The  nation  can  provide  employment  exchanges  to 
bring  the  worker  to  the  factory  door ;  but  the  employer  has  to 
introduce  him  to  the  inner  life  of  the  establishment,  locate  him 
in  his  specific  tasks,  and  fit  him  into  the  plant's  productive  or- 
ganization. The  most  efl&cient  public  employment  organiza- 
tion imaginable  will  fail  to  attain  maximum  results  unless 

1  From  an  address  of  H.  E.  Miles,  Annual  Convention,  EmpIo>Tnent  Managers' 
Association,  Rochester,  N.  Y.,  May  10,  igi8. 

242 


THE   EMPLOYMENT   DEPARTMENT  243 

equally  efficient  employment  organization  and  policy  obtains 
within  industry  itself. 

The  last  fifteen  years  have  witnessed  the  establishment  of 
employment  departments  in  so  many  progressive  concerns  that 

"it  is  becoming  the  exceptional  thing  among  conspicuously  well- 
managed  concerns  to  find  those  which  have  not  established  function- 
alized  employment  departments.  There  is  not  a  city  in  the  country 
in  which  there  is  not  a  considerable  number  of  companies  of  the  first 
importance  which  have  accepted  the  principles  of  employment  work 
as  of  fundamental  importance."  ^ 

This  rapid  extension  of  specialized  employment  work  within 
industry  has  been  due  to  a  number  of  facts.  Thoughtful 
employers  are  realizing  that  the  wise  handling  of  men  is  one  of 
the  most  important  business  problems  that  confront  them. 

"On  the  one  hand  lie  the  possibilities  of  steady  production, 
cooperation,  contentment,  and  good  will ;  on  the  other,  the  possi- 
bilities of  strife,  of  organized  social  revolt,  and  even  the  wrecking  of 
the  present  organization  of  industry."  ^ 

The  specialization  of  the  employment  function  relieves  superin- 
tendents and  foremen  of  the  necessity  of  engaging  men,  and 
enables  them  to  concentrate  all  their  energy  upon  the  produc- 
tion departments.  Where  foremen  do  the  hiring,  they  often 
have  to  absent  themselves  from  their  departments  or  from  the 
supervision  of  their  men,  for  an  hour  or  more,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  day's  work  when  they  are  most  needed.  When  an  em- 
ployment department  selects  the  help  the  foreman  is  able  to 
concentrate  on  production,  he  gets  on  the  average  a  better  run 
of  men,  and  he  is  no  longer  able  to  sell  jobs,  protect  pets,  or 
cover  up  his  own  incompetence  by  discharging  a  man.  The 
employment  specialist  soon  becomes  more  expert  than  a  fore- 
man can  ever  become  in  selecting  workmen,  and  placing  them  in 
the  department  where  they  will  give  the  best  results.  He  dis- 
covers the  reasons  why  workmen  are  quitting,  and  how  to 

1  "Advantages  of  Centralized  Employment?"  E.  M.  Hopkins,  The  Annals, 
May,  1917,  p.  I. 

*  "The  Employment  Manager,"  E.  F.  Nicholi,  The  Annals,  May,  1916,  p.  2. 


244  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

eliminate  them.  He  checks  up  absentees,  and  produces  more 
regular  attendance  at  work.  He  becomes  a  point  of  personal 
contact  between  the  management  and  the  labor  force,  thus 
bridging  that  gap  which  has  caused  so  much  misunderstanding 
and  strife. 

In  a  word,  the  function  of  employment  management  is  such 
an  important  part  of  the  general  function  of  management  that 
it  deserves  the  attention  of  a  specialized  executive,  just  as  the 
selhng  or  buying  department  does;  and  it  is  such  a  delicate, 
responsible  task  that  it  can  be  performed  satisfactorily  only 
by  men  especially  adapted  for  it  and  who  make  it  a  vocation. 
The  crude  methods  of  the  foreman  cannot  handle  the  employ- 
ment problem  of  a  modern  industrial  concern,  without  causing 
large  financial  loss  through  excessive  labor  turnover  and  impaired 
plant  morale. 

A  business  organization,  like  an  army  or  an  athletic  team, 
must  be  unified  and  coordinated  in  order  to  achieve  maximum 
results.  That  concern  which  is  able  to  hold  a  large  part  of  its 
labor  force  not  only  saves  the  expense  of  hiring  and  training 
a  continuous  succession  of  new  employees,  but  reaps  the  benefits  of 
coordinated  efort.  The  athletic  coach  knows  that  he  must 
have  at  least  three  essentials  to  produce  a  successful  team: 
(i)  trained  players,  (2)  players  who  understand  each  other  and 
"pull  together,"  whose  efforts  coordinate  to  the  common  end, 
and  (3)  players  who  are  absorbingly  interested  in  the  success 
of  the  team.  Who  has  not  seen  a  team  of  "  stars  "  fail  for  lack  of 
coordination,  or  lack  of  common  interest?  Who  has  not  seen 
trained  players  in  a  well-groomed  team  fail  for  lack  of  "  the  spirit 
of  victory"?  The  business  concern  can  attain  maximum  pro- 
duction and  pay  maximum  wages  only  by  observance  of  the 
same  principles.  If  it  reduces  turnover,  it  can  hold  its  employees 
long  enough  to  develop  their  individual  capacities;  and  if  it 
has  inteUigent,  fair  labor  policies,  it  can  weld  those  trained 
employees  into  an  organization  which  has  the  spirit  of  produc- 
tion. But  this  result  can  never  be  attained  unless  the  employer 
cultivates  the  good  will  of  his  employees  as  intelligently  as  he 
does  that  of  his  customers. 


THE  EMPLOYMENT  DEPARTMENT  24$ 

The  employment  manager  is  one  of  the  most  effective  means 
of  cultivating  employees'  good  will.  He  can  interpret  to  the 
employer  the  wage  earner's  viewpoints  and  problems,  interpret 
to  the  worker  the  employer's  views  and  difficulties.  He  can 
eliminate  his  misunderstandings,  give  more  or  less  neutral 
counsel,  and  discover  the  causes  of  unrest  and  dissatisfaction 
among  the  working  force.  But,  in  order  to  do  this,  he  must 
be  a  man  of  real  caliber.  The  employer  who  seeks  a  cheap  em- 
ployment manager  will  fail  to  get  the  most  valuable  results 
he  is  after. 

He  must  be  a  man  who  can  be  looked  upon,  by  the  employer, 
the  superintendents  of  production  departments,  and  the  wage 
earners,  as  a  staff  officer,  an  executive.  His  duties  require  a 
broad  grasp  of  the  business,  care  in  fitting  men  to  positions, 
and  tact  and  good  sense  both  in  dealing  with  employees  and  with 
the  foremen  and  superintendents.  A  good  employment  man- 
ager will  yield  an  increase  in  the  annual  profits.  The  employ- 
ment department  should  be  regarded  as  an  operating  depart- 
ment, equal  in  rank  with  the  other  departments,  and  put  in 
charge  of  a  man  competent  to  rank  with  the  other  superinten- 
dents. Its  functions  make  it  as  essential  to  the  organization 
as  the  men  who  provide  raw  materials  or  maintain  the  ma- 
chinery. 

It  is  very  necessary  that  the  employment  manager  be  able  to 
see  his  place  in  the  general  organization  and  to  think  in  terms 
of  the  larger  policies  and  purposes  of  the  company.  His  is  a 
service  department  which  can  accomplish  its  results  only  in- 
directly. It  exists  to  make  the  production  departments  more 
efficient.  It  should  make  every  superintendent  in  the  organi- 
zation grateful  that  the  company  has  provided  them  with  such 
useful  assistance. 

The  employment  manager's  personality  is  of  strategic  im- 
portance. He  must  have  human  sympathy.  His  kindliness 
must  be  such  as  will  induce  responsiveness  in  the  workman, 
and  his  sincerity  in  that  kindliness  must  win  their  confidence. 
He  must  know  the  working  people,  their  fives,  difficulties,  vir- 
tues, and  faults  and  be  genuinely  interested  in  helping  people. 


246  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

At  the  same  time  he  must  be  able  to  work  consistently  for  the 
advancement  of  the  business.  He  must  be  able  to  investigate 
quickly  and  thoroughly,  judge  impartially,  and  act  with  firm- 
ness. His  human  sympathy,  in  other  words,  should  not  savor 
of  sentimentality,  but  be  of  that  virile  character  that  enables 
him  to  get  proper  reactions  from  the  men  without  interfering 
with  thoroughness  in  work. 

He  should  be  a  man  of  courage,  of  absolute  fearlessness, 
who  can  steadfastly  stand  for  his  convictions  when  presenting 
them  to  superior  ofi&cers.  That  manager  is  worth  little  to  a 
company  who  is  but  an  echo  of  some  superior,  and  lacks  the 
courage  to  discover  the  past  and  present  shortcomings  of  the 
company's  labor  policies  and  show  constructive  ways  of  over- 
coming them. 

Boyd  Fisher  has  put  this  idea  as  follows:  "Employment 
supervision  represents  a  movement  in  the  direction  of  the 
democratic  shop,  in  which  a  voice  is  given  to  labor  in  determin- 
ing the  working  conditions.  It  is  a  means  of  applying  that 
conception  of  service  which  has  revolutionized  selling,  to  the 
relation  of  employer  and  employee.  As  the  customer  is  '  sold ' 
the  finished  product,  so  a  workman  is  '  sold  his  job. '  The  latter 
has  to  be  satisfied  as  to  the  task,  the  working  conditions,  the 
wages,  and  the  general  policies,  before  he  becomes  a  genuine 
employee." 

We  will  not  enter  into  the  technique  of  organizing  and  man- 
aging such  a  department.  The  references  at  the  end  of  the 
chapter  will  give  the  reader  a  good  entrance  into  those  matters. 
Our  concern  centers  more  particularly  in  the  functions  of  such 
departments  in  an  organized  labor  market.  In  other  words, 
we  want  to  present  their  proper  relation  to  the  public  employ- 
ment service  which  we  have  been  discussing. 

We  have  already  seen  that  a  coordinated  system  of  employ- 
ment exchanges,  covering  the  country  with  a  network  of  offices, 
is  needed  to  put  employers  in  need  of  specific  classes  of  labor  at 
specific  points  in  touch  with  unemployed  workers  able  to  fill 
their  needs,  and  to  give  idle  wage  earners  a  maximum  oppor- 
tunity of  securing  employment.     We  have  seen  that  such  ex- 


THE   EMPLOYMENT  DEPARTMENT  247 

changes  are  needed  as  a  means  of  gathering,  from  day  lo  day, 
accurate  knowledge  of  conditions  in  the  labor  market  and  making 
it  immediately  available  to  employers,  employees,  and  the  govern- 
ment. We  have  seen  that  such  exchanges  are  needed  to  provide 
vocational  guidance  to  millions  of  workers,  both  minors  and 
adults,  who  need  expert  advice  in  choosing  occupations  or 
accepting  positions,  and  to  direct  the  attention  of  employers 
to  changes  which  they  can  make  in  their  business  policies  that 
will  net  them  material  gains.  We  have  seen  that  specialized 
or  "  f unctionalized "  employment  departments  in  individual 
establishments  can  function  to  the  great  benefit  of  both  employer 
and  employees,  by  selecting  and  placing  workers  more  discrimi- 
natingly and  developing  constructive  policies  to  make  the 
establishment  a  better  place  in  which  to  work.  What  should 
be  the  relation  of  the  public  exchanges  and  these  employment 
departments  to  each  other?  How  should  they  divide  the 
field  of  labor  recruiting,  selection,  and  placement  between 
them  ?  Should  they  be  competing  organizations,  or  cooperating, 
or  independent  ? 

The  question,  in  its  essentials,  is  not  difficult  to  answer. 
The  public  employment  exchange  cannot  make  a  final  selection, 
cannot  "hire"  an  employee  for  an  establishment  which  has 
an  employment  department.  But  it  can  sift  out  of  the  total 
number  of  applicants  those  which  most  nearly  approximate 
the  types  ordered  by  the  employment  department  of  the  estab- 
lishment. Such  employment  departments  will,  on  the  average, 
furnish  the  exchanges  with  more  accurate  descriptions  of  the 
types  of  workers  desired  than  employers  or  operating  super- 
intendents do,  and  a  careful  exchange  would  probably  send 
but  few  workers  to  employment  departments  who  would  be 
refused,  unless  they  were  disqualified  by  physical  examinations. 
If  workers  must  tramp  from  establishment  to  establishment 
seeking  work,  we  still  have  the  disorganized  labor  market,  the 
excessive  labor  reserve,  and  the  failure  of  employers  and  men 
to  get  together  with  the  least  waste  of  time.  The  employment 
exchange,  by  obtaining  from  each  establishment  a  list  of  its 
needs,  and   by  attracting   the  wage  earners  to   its  offices,  can 


248  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

centralize  the  demand  for  labor  and  the  supply  of  labor  at  the 
employment  exchange,  and  can  then  distribute  the  available 
workers  to  the  employers  with  the  least  loss  of  time  and  effort. 
The  employment  department  can  then  select,  out  of  those  sent, 
the  ones  competent  to  fill  the  positions  vacant,  can  induct 
them  properly  into  the  establishment,  can  see  that  they  are 
properly  trained,  can  develop  constructive  policies  of  retaining 
and  developing  them.  The  public  employment  exchange  can 
enable  the  employment  department  to  function  more  eJSiciently. 
The  employment  department  is  one  of  the  exchange's  main 
hopes  in  the  effort  to  reduce  labor  shifting  and  to  stabilize 
employment. 


PART   III 
SPECIAL  PROBLEMS   OF  EMPLOYMENT 


CHAPTER  XIII 
THE   LABORER 

Employment  offices,  both  public  and  private,  have  found 
their  principal  clientele  among  unskilled  and  semi-skilled  labor- 
ers. Teachers'  agencies,  vocational  bureaus,  and  the  "skilled 
labor"  departments  of  pubUc  exchanges  have  placed  many- 
skilled  workers  each  year,  but  the  total  of  this  business  has 
been  small  compared  with  the  millions  of  laborers  placed  by 
employment  offices  annually.  The  skilled  mechanics  of  the 
country  have  ordinarily  obtained  work  through  their  trade 
unions,  direct  appHcation  to  employers,  or  watching  newspaper 
advertisements,  rather  than  through  employment  offices.  Dur- 
ing the  war,  skilled  mechanics  were  placed  by  employment  ex- 
changes in  much  larger  numbers  than  ever  before.  For  the 
first  time  in  our  history  they  used  employment  offices  to  a 
considerable  extent.  But  it  is  probable  that  large  numbers  of 
them,  particularly  those  who  are  members  of  unions,  will  con- 
tinue for  some  time  to  depend  primarily  upon  other  agencies 
than  employment  exchanges  as  means  of  obtaining  work. 

It  is  the  relation  of  the  employment  service  to  the  ordinary 
laborer  which  is  of  especial  importance  at  the  present  time. 
The  laborers  lack  the  facilities  which  enable  mechanics  to  secure 
work.  Laborers,  male  and  female,  constitute  a  large  propor- 
tion of  that  decentralized  labor  reserve  which  we  discussed  in 
our  first  chapter.  They  bear  with  especial  severity  the  burden 
of  unemployment  which  we  discussed  in  our  second  and  third 
chapters.  Theirs  are  the  hardships  of  the  unemployed,  the 
evils  of  the  "blind  alley"  occupation,  the  deficiencies  due  to 
inadequate  education  and  training.  No  class  of  wage  earners 
would  receive  greater  benefit  if  an  adequate  employment  service 
improved  labor  distribution,  stabilized  employment,  checked 

251 


252  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

labor  turnover,  provided  vocational   guidance,  and  made  ex- 
cessive labor  reserve  unnecessary  to  industry. 

The  writer  wishes  in  this  chapter  to  discuss  the  laborer  from 
two  points  of  view:  First,  in  connection  with  a  classification 
based  upon  variations  in  skill  and  technical  knowledge ;  second, 
in  connection  with  a  classification  based  upon  the  degree  of 
steadiness  of  different  laborers  in  their  employments. 

I.   Classification  on  Basis  of  Types  of  Skill 

There  are  three  principal  types  of  laborers  from  the  point  of 
view  of  skill  in  work.  There  is  a  type  of  laborers  whom  we  may 
justly  call  skilled  laborers.  They  are  to  be  distinguished  from 
the  mechanic  who  has  learned  a  trade  and  from  the  stenographer 
or  the  bookkeeper  who  has  learned  a  definite  occupation,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  from  the  crude,  untrained  laborer,  on  the 
other.  These  skilled  laborers  have  a  certain  specialized  skill, 
such  as  the  ability  to  operate  rip  saws  or  some  other  special 
type  of  machinery,  to  stoke  a  gas  house  retort,  or  to  operate  a 
tramcar  in  a  mine. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  technical  skill  the  skilled  laborers 
are  in  no  sense  mechanics.  They  operate  the  bulk  of  our  simpler 
machinery,  such  as  rip  saws  or  cross-cut  saws  in  our  wood- work- 
ing factories,  punches,  stamping-presses,  and  emery  wheels  in 
our  metal  industries.  They  furnish  us  with  street  car  men, 
chaufifeurs,  many  types  of  packers  and  craters,  meter  readers, 
gas  stove  testers,  and  a  thousand  other  kinds  of  more  or  less 
skilled  help.  They  have  never  learned  any  trade,  though  some 
of  them  have  acquired  a  considerable  degree  of  skill  at  a  task, 
and  constitute  a  class  of  workmen  who  lie  in  between  the  cruder 
kinds  of  common  labor  and  the  skill  of  the  mechanic. 

The  second  type  of  laborer,  from  the  point  of  view  of  skill, 
is  the  semi-skilled  laborer.  He  has  acquired  knowledge  of 
some  definite  task  or  tasks,  but  his  tasks  are  of  a  lower  grade 
than  those  performed  by  the  skilled  laborer.  His  work  takes 
less  knowledge.  He  has  been  employed  at  many  kinds  of  work 
without  ever  having  acquired  an  adequate  knowledge  of  any. 


THE  LABORER  253 

The  third  type  is  the  crude  common  laborer,  who  does  work 
that  requires  little  but  physical  exertion  under  constant  direc- 
tion. The  reader  can  observe  it  typically  by  spending  a  half 
hour  watching  a  railway  extra-gang.  The  foreman  furnishes 
all  the  thinking.  He  tells  his  men  to  lift  and  they  lift,  to  let 
down  and  they  let  down,  to  shovel  and  they  shovel.  They 
have  no  knowledge  of  what  their  next  moment's  work  will  be 
—  and  they  have  no  desire  to  know.  Work  of  this  general 
type  is  found  in  every  manufacturing  estabUshment,  store, 
contracting  job,  or  other  industrial  enterprise  of  any  size. 
Many  janitors,  freight  elevator  operators,  and  foundry  laborers 
may  reasonably  be  included  in  the  same  group. 

The  writer  speaks  of  this  type  of  laborer  as  a  common  laborer. 

The  exact  significance  of  the  term  "common  laborer"  has 
not  become  fixed  in  the  United  States.  Many  persons  use 
the  expression  as  descriptive  of  work  that  merely  "takes  a 
strong  back  and  a  weak  mind."  ^  Ditch  digging,  railroad 
section  work,  casual  labor,  carrying  mortar,  or  pushing  a  wheel- 
barrow are  typical  of  what  the  words  mean  to  them.  Others 
use  the  term  to  include  any  work  which  has  not  become  a  recog- 
nized part  of  a  definite  trade.  There  is  a  distinct,  and  probably 
increasing  tendency  to  differentiate  between  the  cruder  forms 
of  labor  and  those  forms  which  require  a  degree  of  skill  by  the 
use  of  the  terms  "unskilled  laborers,"  "semi-skilled  laborers," 
and  "skilled  laborers"  —  all  three  terms  being  used  to  describe 
laborers  as  contrasted  with  mechanics  and  those  who  have  occu- 
pations {e.g.,  stenography,  which  must  be  learned  through  a 
definite  course  of  instruction).  And  the  writer  thinks  the  dis- 
tinction is  one  which  should  be  recognized.  There  are  impor- 
tant differences  between  the  unskilled  laborers  who  do  work 
that  requires  only  muscle  or  dexterity,  not  training;  semi- 
skilled laborers,  typified  by  the  machine-tending  factory  hand 
who  can  be  trusted  only  with  the  simpler  machines,  the  steadier 
class  of  building  laborers,  and  many  artisan's  "helpers";  and 
the  skilled  laborers  who  include  factory  operatives  of  the  higher 
grade  but  not  possessing  knowledge  of  a  skilled  trade,  much 

1  George  Lavell,  in  Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  1919,  p-  646. 


254  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

clerical  and  mercantile  help,  and  such  mechanic's  assistants 
as  "mason  tenders"  or  bricklayer's  helpers.^ 

One  of  the  most  suggestive  passages  on  this  subject  in  eco- 
nomic literature  is  the  analysis  of  Professor  Alfred  Marshall, 
of  Oxford  University.^ 

"...  The  solid  qualities  of  the  modern  machine-tending  artisan 
are  rated  more  cheaply  than  the  lighter  virtues  of  the  mediaeval 
handicraftsman.  This  is  partly  because  we  are  apt  to  regard  as 
commonplace  those  excellences  which  are  common  in  our  own  time ; 
and  to  overlook  the  fact  that  the  term  'unskilled  labourer'  is  con- 
stantly changing  its  meaning. 

"Very  backward  races  are  unable  to  keep  on  at  any  kind  of  work 
for  a  long  time;  and  even  the  simplest  form  of  what  we  regard  as 
unskilled  work  is  skilled  work  relatively  to  them ;  for  they  have  not 
the  requisite  assiduity,  and  they  can  acquire  it  only  by  a  long  course 
of  training.  But  where  education  is  universal,  an  occupation  may 
fairly  be  classed  as  ujiskilled,  though  it  required  a  knowledge  of 
reading  and  writing.  Again,  in  districts  in  which  manufactures  have 
long  been  domiciled,  a  habit  of  responsibility,  of  carefulness  and 
promptitude  in  handling  expensive  machinery  and  materials  becomes 
the  common  property  of  aU ;  and  then  much  of  the  work  of  tending 
machinery  is  said  to  be  entirely  mechanical  and  unskilled,  and  to  call 
forth  no  human  faculty  that  is  worthy  of  esteem.  But  in  fact  it 
is  probable  that  not  one-tenth  of  the  present  populations  of  the  world 
have  the  mental  and  moral  faculties,  the  intelligence,  and  the  self- 
control  that  are  required  for  it ;  perhaps  not  one-half  could  be  made 
to  do  the  work  well  by  steady  training  for  two  generations.  Even  of 
a  manufacturing  population  only  a  small  part  are  capable  of  doing 
many  of  the  tasks  that  appear  at  first  sight  to  be  entirely  monotonous. 
Machine-weaving,  for  instance,  simple  as  it  seems,  is  divided  into 
higher  and  lower  grades ;  and  most  of  those  who  work  in  the  lower 
grades  have  not  '  the  stuff  in  them '  that  is  required  for  weaving  wnth 
several  colours.  And  the  differences  are  even  greater  in  industries 
that  deal  with  hard  materials,  wood,  metals,  or  ceramics. 

*  A  very  interesting  picture  of  the  gradations  of  skill  among  laborers  will  be 
found  in  "Labor  Conditions  in  Slaughtering  and  Meat  Packing,"  John  R.  Commons, 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  Vol.  XIX,  pp.  1-32  ;  reprinted  in  " Trade  Unionism 
and  Labor  Problems,"  John  R.  Commons. 

'  "Principles  of  Economics,"  sth  Ed.  Vol.  I,  pp.  206-207. 


THE   LABORER  255 

"Some  kinds  of  manual  work  require  long-continued  practice  in 
one  set  of  operations,  but  these  cases  are  not  very  common,  and  they 
are  becoming  rarer :  for  machinery  is  constantly  taking  over  work  that 
requires  manual  skill  of  this  kind.  It  is  indeed  true  that  a  general 
command  over  the  use  of  one's  fingers  is  a  very  important  element  of 
industrial  efiiciency ;  but  this  is  the  result  chiefly  of  nervous  strength 
and  self-mastery." 

"Manual  skill  that  is  so  specialized  that  it  is  quite  incapable  of 
being  transferred  from  one  occupation  to  another  is  becoming  steadily 
a  less  and  less  important  factor  in  production.  Putting  aside  for  the 
present  the  faculties  of  artistic  perception  and  artistic  creation,  we 
may  say  that  what  makes  one  occupation  higher  than  another,  what 
makes  the  workers  of  one  town  or  country  more  efficient  than  those  of 
another,  is  chiefly  a  superiority  in  general  sagacity  and  energy  which 
is  not  specialized  to  any  one  trade. 

"To  be  able  to  bear  in  mind  many  things  at  a  time,  to  have  every- 
thing ready  when  wanted,  to  act  promptly  and  show  resource  when 
anything  goes  wrong,  to  accommodate  oneself  quickly  to  changes  in 
details  of  the  work  done,  to  be  steady  and  trustworthy,  to  have  always 
a  reserve  of  force  which  will  come  out  in  emergency,  these  are  the 
qualities  which  make  a  great  industrial  people.  They  are  not  peculiar 
to  any  occupation,  but  are  wanted  in  all ;  and  if  they  cannot  always 
be  easily  transferred  from  one  trade  to  other  kindred  trades,  the  chief 
reason  is  that  they  require  to  be  supplemented  by  some  knowledge  of 
materials  and  familiarity  with  special  processes." 

2.   Classification  of  Laborers  from  Employment  Point 

OF  View 

When  we  consider  the  laborers  of  the  United  States  from  the 
point  of  view  of  steadiness  in  employment,  we  find  that  they 
fall  quite  naturally  into  five  distinct  classes,  and  that  each  of 
these  classes  includes  within  its  membership  skilled,  semi- 
skilled and  unskilled  laborers. 

The  highest  type  of  laborer  is  the  man  who  holds  a  steady  job. 
He  is  part  of  an  industry;  he  has  an  occupation.  He  is  a 
citizen  in  a  community ;  generally  the  father  of  a  family ;  prob- 
ably a  member  of  one  or  more  lodges,  and  very  frequently  of  a 
church. 


256  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

There  are  millions  of  such  men  in  this  country.  They  are 
the  firm  basis  upon  which  rests  the  superstructure  of  skilled 
labor  in  our  industries.  They  are  the  men  upon  whom  the 
employers  depend  in  a  large  degree  for  continuous,  efficient 
production.  They  represent  a  wide  range  of  occupation,  a 
considerable  variation  in  skill  and  training,  and  the  highest 
paid  members  of  the  group  earn  at  least  a  dollar  and  a  half  a 
day  more  than  the  lowest  paid.  Some  of  the  skilled  laborers 
are  of  this  steady  type,  some  are  not.  The  same  thing  is  true 
of  the  less  skilled  laborers.  Steadiness  of  employment,  in  other 
words,  is  not  entirely  determined  by  the  worker's  skill.  Other 
things  being  equal,  the  more  skilled  laborer  will  be  retained  by 
an  employer  in  preference  to  the  less  skilled.  But  other  things 
are  not  always  equal.  It  therefore  happens  that  in  each  type, 
classified  by  skill,  we  find  the  steady  and  the  irregular  worker ; 
that  in  each  type,  classified  by  regularity  of  employment,  we 
find  the  skilled,  the  semi-skilled,  and  the  unskilled  laborer. 

The  steadier,  more  responsible  type  of  laborers  hold  a  large 
percentage  of  the  steady  jobs  in  our  economic  system.  They 
represent  no  social  problem  so  long  as  they  can  maintain  the 
status  of  regular  employees  in  more  or  less  continuous  jobs. 
But  any  change  in  industrial  processes,  reorganization,  or  indus- 
trial depression,  which  displaces  them  from  their  steady  jobs 
quickly  reduces  them  to  a  difficult  position.  Their  income  is 
barely  sufficient  while  steadily  employed  to  provide  the  necessi- 
ties for  their  families,  and  they  can  never  hope  to  save  more 
than  enough  to  pay  for  a  small  home  and  carry  a  thousand  or 
two  thousand  dollars'  worth  of  life  insurance.  Indeed,  few  of 
them  can  save  at  all  during  the  years  when  their  children  are 
small,  except  possibly  a  couple  of  hundred  dollars  to  protect 
them  against  temporary  adversities.  Their  children  ordinarily 
go  to  work  as  soon  as  the  law  permits,  and  the  period  of  saving 
in  this  type  of  family  ordinarily  begins  when  the  earnings  of 
one,  two,  or  three  children  are  added.  The  idea  is  almost 
universal  among  the  common  laborers  that  it  is  the  duty  of  a 
child  to  contribute  his  wages  to  his  father's  family  for  a  period 
of  years  before  he  strikes  out  for  himself.     The  girl's  earnings 


THE  LABORER  257 

are  commonly  believed  to  belong  to  the  parents  until  she  marries 
or  definitely  leaves  home. 

The  steady  type  of  common  laborer  tends  to  settle  in  some 
community,  and  very  frequently  in  some  establishment,  and 
remain  there.  Hundreds  of  thousands  live  in  the  same  house  or 
in  the  same  section  of  a  city  for  years,  and  I  have  personally 
known  many  who  have  been  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  with  the 
same  employer. 

This  type  of  laborer  has  been  recruited  in  America  largely 
from  the  successive  waves  of  immigration.  Each  race,  when 
it  first  comes  to  the  United  States,  is  compelled  to  start  at  the 
bottom  of  the  economic  ladder  and  cannot  hope  to  obtain  any 
considerable  number  of  the  more  lucrative  positions  until  it 
has  adapted  itself  to  American  conditions  and  become  an  inte- 
gral part  of  American  life.  One  reason  for  the  contempt  often 
manifested  toward  recent  immigrants  has  been  that  Americans 
have  unthinkingly  assumed  that  since  the  majority  of  the  people 
of  a  certain  race  in  America  are  common  laborers  at  that  present 
moment,  the  intelligence,  capacity,  and  prospects  of  that  people 
are  of  common  labor  grade.  Conversely,  some  of  the  aversion 
of  the  typical  American  to  common  labor  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  it  is  largely  performed  by  recent  immigrants  whose  igno- 
rance of  our  language,  customs,  and  standards  of  living  is  ac- 
cepted by  the  unthinking  as  a  mark  of  some  mental,  moral  or 
spiritual  inferiority.  The  English,  Scotch,  Irish,  Germans, 
and  Scandinavians,  have  had  their  turn  at  common  labor  in 
America,  and  that  status  is  not  peculiar  as  a  characteristic  of 
early  years  in  America,  to  the  Slavs,  the  Italians,  the  Portuguese, 
the  Jews,  the  Greeks.  Each  race  has  taken  its  turn,  and  each 
race  has  in  its  succession  gone  through  a  sifting  process  in 
America  which  has  left  its  less  competent  and  less  fortunate 
families  to  form  a  recruiting  ground  for  future  generations  of 
laborers;  while  its  more  aggressive  elements  pushed  upward 
into  a  happier  economic  state  as  skilled  mechanics,  farmers,  or 
business  men,  or  into  the  professions  or  politics.  The  first 
generation  of  immigrants  can  seldom  escape  from  the  common 
labor  class  unless  they  obtained  technical  training  or  education 


258  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

in  the  old  country  which  naturally  fits  them  for  a  higher  status, 
but,  thanks  to  the  American  public  school,  many  of  their  chil- 
dren do. 

A  second  and  very  important  source  of  recruitment  of  the 
common  laborers  is  their  children.  The  low  wage  of  the  father, 
which  throws  the  child  into  industry  at  the  completion  of  the 
grammar  grades  or  even  before,  makes  it  very  difficult  for  the 
common  laborer's  child  to  escape  into  a  more  lucrative  occupa- 
tion. Many  individuals  of  exceptional  ability  do  escape.  Some 
advance  themselves  in  the  establishments  where  they  are  em- 
ployed. Their  industry  and  capacity  cause  their  employers 
to  give  them  an  opportunity  to  learn  a  higher  grade  of  work. 
They  become  skilled  machine  operators,  mechanics,  shippers, 
foremen.  Others  get  on  a  farm  or  start  a  small  business  and 
succeed.  Some  attend  night  school  or  take  correspondence 
courses.  But  the  difficulties  which  surround  them  in  their 
attempts  to  rise  are  hard  to  overcome,  and  a  large  percentage 
do  not  attain  anything  more,  as  a  maximum,  than  a  steady  job 
at  manual  labor,  and,  as  a  common  experience,  a  precarious 
livelihood. 

Many  young  men  and  women  drift  into  the  ranks  of  the 
laborers  each  year  in  a  misdirected  effort  to  improve  their  lot. 
Thousands  of  boys  and  girls  leave  the  farm  to  seek  their  for- 
tunes in  the  city,  with  no  training  or  preparation  which  fits 
them  for  any  city  vocation.  Some  are  fortunate  in  dropping 
into  some  employment  which  paves  the  way  toward  a  successful 
life.  Others  become  laborers  of  the  steady  type.  Many  drift 
here  and  there  and  degenerate  into  irregular,  more  or  less  mi- 
gratory, laborers ;  while  each  year  some  see  that  they  will  be 
better  off  back  on  the  farm  and  return  to  rural  life. 

A  fourth,  and  rather  important,  source  of  conunon  laborers 
is  the  failures  in  other  economic  groups.  Common  labor  is 
the  last  resource  of  those  who  fail  in  other  occupations.  Each 
year  economic,  moral,  physical,  and  mental  failures  drop  from 
other  groups  into  this  great  residual  group.  Common  labor 
includes  those  who  have  not  yet  begun  the  upward  economic 
journey,  and  those  who  have  lost  the  fight.     The  first  type  of 


THE  LABORER  259 

common  labor  which  we  have  described,  the  steady,  reliable 
type,  is  of  course  largely  composed  of  those  whose  limitations 
of  training  or  of  capacity  have  prevented  them  from  attaining 
better  occupations;  while  the  failures  are  most  frequently 
found  among  those  types  which  we  will  describe. 

The  American  Bankers  Association  made  a  study  of  one 
hundred  average  men,  healthy  and  vigorous  in  mind  and  body 
and  dependent,  at  twenty-five  years  of  age,  upon  their  own  exer- 
tions for  a  living.  Ten  of  them  were  wealthy  by  the  time 
they  were  thirty-five,  but  only  four  at  forty-five,  and  but  one 
at  fifty-five  years.  Ten  others  were  in  good  circumstances  at 
thirty-five,  while  forty  were  in  moderate  circumstances,  but 
at  fifty-five  years  of  age  only  three  were  in  good  circumstances ; 
forty-six  were  still  working  for  their  living,  and  thirty  were 
more  or  less  dependent  upon  their  children  or  their  relatives 
or  charity  for  support.  Twenty  out  of  the  original  hundred 
died  before  they  were  fifty-five  years  of  age ;  one  was  rich  at 
fifty-five,  three  were  in  good  circumstances,  and  seventy-six 
were  either  wage  earners  or  dependent.  At  seventy-five  years 
of  age,  sixty-three  had  died  —  of  whom  sixty  left  no  estate ;  only 
two  were  wealthy,  and  the  other  thirty-five  were  dependent 
upon  relatives  or  charity  for  their  support.  Throughout  the 
life  history  of  these  one  hundred  men,  all  able-bodied  and  self- 
supporting  at  twenty-five  years  of  age,  runs  the  record  of  a  con- 
siderable percentage  of  failures.  At  thirty-five  years  of  age, 
thirty-five  of  them  had  no  property ;  at  forty-five  years,  sixty- 
five  were  wage  earners  without  property  and  fifteen  were  at 
least  partly  dependent  because  of  sickness,  accident,  or  other 
causes ;  at  fifty-five  years,  forty-six  were  wage  earners,  and 
thirty  more  or  less  dependent ;  at  sLxty-five  years,  fifty-four 
had  become  dependent ;  and  out  of  the  whole  one  hundred, 
but  five  left  an  estate. 

The  second  type  of  common  laborer  is  also  a  permanent  factor 
in  the  life  of  a  community.  He  may  leave  town  when  work  is 
slack  locally,  but  he  returns.  The  essential  characteristic  of 
his  economic  life  is  that  he  works  for  a  succession  of  employers. 
The  first  type  described  work  steadily  for  prolonged  periods 


26o  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

for  certain  employers;  the  second  type  works  for  contractor 
Jones,  then  for  Smith,  then  for  Brown.  Now  a  temporary 
job  is  attained  in  a  furniture  factory,  then  in  a  brick  yard,  and 
again  in  the  shipping  room  of  a  department  store.  In  other 
words,  the  first  type  of  laborer  gets  a  position,  the  second  works 
at  jobs.  There  are  many  varieties  of  this  second  type.  At 
his  best,  we  find  a  man  with  a  family,  struggling  bravely  for 
existence.  He  eagerly  seeks  employment  when  idle  and  works 
faithfully  when  employed,  but  has  no  special  skill  and  has  not 
been  fortunate  enough  to  annex  a  steady  job.  Frequently  he 
is  not  as  strong,  as  quick  or  as  intelligent  as  many  of  the  men 
with  whom  he  must  compete.  His  wife  commonly  assists  in 
the  bitter  struggle  by  keeping  boarders  or  doing  washing  or 
sewing.  In  tens  of  thousands  of  cases  she  goes  out  washing 
or  cleaning  for  a  day  or  two  a  week.  Their  children  are  found 
at  the  work  bench  at  the  earliest  possible  age  and  high  school 
education  is  not  a  thing  that  the  family  can  think  about.  In  a 
somewhat  lower  type  of  these  irregular  laborers  we  find  the 
family  intermittently  on  the  rolls  of  the  charities,  whenever 
two  or  three  weeks  of  continuous  unemployment,  sickness,  or 
other  temporary  calamity  assails  them. 

In  another  variation,  we  find  the  man  single  and  living  in 
cheap  boarding  houses.  Usually,  but  not  always,  he  deteriorates 
steadily  under  the  influence  of  drink,  irregular  work,  and  irregu- 
lar habits.  He  tends  to  approach  closer  and  closer  to  the 
type  of  the  true  casual,  though  he  often  fails  to  develop 
entirely  the  casual's  psychology.  Mr.  Charles  K.  Blatchy, 
after  years  of  contact  with  this  type  in  New  York,  thus 
described  them,  in  his  testimony  before  the  Industrial  Rela- 
tions Commission: 

"They  are  practically  unemployable.  They  are  unreliable. 
They  are  men  who  are  drinkers  to  such  an  extent  as  to  interfere  with 
their  ability  to  earn  a  living.  Some  of  them  are  willing  workers  and 
able  bodied,  but  they  work  a  month,  or  until  the  first  pay  day,  then 
they  quit  and  spend  the  money."  ^ 

1  Report  of  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations,  191 2.  Vol.  11,  p.  1167. 


THE   LABORER  261 

A  little  later  in  his  testimony  he  says :  ^ 

"  In  going  over  one  case  record  as  we  call  it,  only  two  or  three 
weeks  ago,  I  found  that  one  man  had  had  thirty  or  forty  jobs  in  the 
last  seven  or  eight  years." 

The  struggle  for  existence  of   the  married  man  of   this  class 
is  harder,  more  bitter  —  but  he  has  more  to  fight  for. 

Mrs.  Alice  Solenberger  has  given  a  clear  picture  of  the  types 
of  people  found  in  the  cheap  lodging  house,  the  associates  of 
this  laborer  who  remains  single. 

"Altogether,  viewing  the  population  of  the  cheap  lodging  houses  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  social  worker,  it  may  be  stated  that  it  includes  four  distinct  though  con- 
stantly merging  classes  of  men. 

"These  classes  may  be  summarized  as  follows: 

"(i)  Self-supporting.  All  men  of  whatever  trade  or  occupation  who  support 
themselves  by  their  own  exertions.  Some  are  employed  all  the  year ;  some  are 
seasonal  workers ;   others  casual  laborers ;   but  all  are  independent. 

"(2)  Temporarily  dependent.  Runaway  boys;  strangers  who  lack  city  refer- 
ences and  are  not  yet  employed ;  men  who  have  been  robbed ;  victims  of  accident 
or  illness;  convalescents;  men  displaced  by  industrial  disturbances,  or  by  the 
introduction  of  machinery;  misfits;  foreigners  unacquainted  with  the  language 
and  not  yet  employed,  and  other  men  without  means  who  could  again  become  self- 
supporting  if  tided  past  temporary  difficulties. 

"  (3)  Chronically  dependent.  Contains  many  of  the  aged,  the  crippled,  de- 
formed, blind,  deaf,  tuberculous ;  the  feeble-minded,  insane,  epileptic ;  the  chroni- 
cally ill ;  also  certain  men  addicted  to  the  continuous  and  excessive  use  of  drink  or 
drugs,  and  a  few  able-bodied  but  almost  hopelessly  inefficient  men. 

"(4)  Parasitic.  Contains  many  confirmed  wanderers  or  tramps;  criminals; 
impostors;  begging-letter  writers;  confidence  men,  etc.,  and  a  great  majority  of 
all  chronic  beggars,  local  vagrants,  and  wanderers. 

"The  first  group  is  composed  of  able-bodied  men  who  work  all  or  most  of  the 
year  and  who  e.xpect  to  support  themselves  by  their  own  exertions.  In  the  second 
group  are  men  capable  of  self-support,  but  temporarily  and  in  many  cases  quite 
accidentally  dependent.  In  the  third  are  men  who  formerly  belonged  to  the  first 
and  second  groups  but  who,  on  account  of  age  or  chronic  physical  or  mental  dis- 
ability, or  for  other  reasons,  such  as  the  excessive  use  of  drink  or  drugs,  or  extreme 
ignorance  and  ineflSciency,  have  become  continuously  dependent  upon  the  public 
for  support. 

"Men  of  this  class  may  sometimes  again  become  at  least  partly  self-supporting 
and  are  not  parasitic  in  spirit.  In  the  fourth  group  are  the  parasites,  the  men, 
whether  able-bodied  or  defective,  who  make  a  business  of  living  off  the  public  and 
who  apparently  do  so  from  choice  rather  than  from  necessity.  Some  are  thieves 
and  criminals,  some  clever  impostors  and  beggars  who  live  by  their  wits ;  still  others 
are  only  'tramps,'  not  necessarily  criminal,  but  nevertheless  anti-social. 

"This  classification  takes  the  self-supporting,  self-respecting,  able-bodied  lodging 

•  Report  of  Commission  on  Industrial  Relations,  1912,  Vol  II,  p.  n68. 


262  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

house  resident  of  average  morality  as  the  type  nearest  approaching  the  normal 
citizen.  Men  of  the  second  group  fall  temporarily  below  this  normal  standard,  but 
may  be  brought  back  to  it  unless  they  are  forced  by  circumstances  still  farther  below 
normal  and  into  the  third  group.  All  three  of  these  groups  are  constantly  contrib- 
uting to  the  fourth,  the  distinctly  abnormal,  with  which  society  must  deal  along 
corrective  and  repressive  lines."  1 

The  distinction  between  this  general  group  of  laborers  and 
the  one  first  described  is  found  in  the  relative  steadiness  of 
the  first  group's  employment,  and  the  relative  unsteadiness  of 
the  second's.  One  works  for  the  same  employer  for  consider- 
able periods  of  time ;  the  other  changes  employers  frequently. 
Individuals  of  the  first  group  frequently  pass  into  the  second 
group,  when  they  lose  their  steady  jobs  and  are  unable  to  gpt 
others.  Individuals  of  the  second  group  sometimes  pass  into 
the  first  group  by  fortunately  dropping  into  a  steady  job. 

The  distinction  between  these  two  groups  may  seem  to  one 
not  familiar  with  the  home  life  of  the  common  laborer  to  be  a 
flimsy  one.  It  may  seem  somewhat  vague,  especially  since 
individuals  of  each  group  are  passing  each  day  into  the  other 
group.  There  is  a  middle  ground,  a  twilight  zone,  in  which 
many  people  are  found  whom  it  is  difficult  to  classify  as  being 
of  either  one  type  or  the  other.  But  the  distinction  is  an  ex- 
tremely important  one.  The  conditions  of  home  life  —  even 
of  lodging  house  life  —  which  grow  out  of  steady  work  are 
much  different  from  those  which  grow  out  of  unsteady  work. 
The  members  of  the  group  with  steady  employment  are  never 
far  from  destitution.  They  are  poor,  very  poor.  They  have  a 
hard  time  to  make  ends  meet.  They  commonly  have  to  take 
their  children  out  of  school  by  the  time  that  they  are  twelve 
to  sixteen  years  of  age.  A  period  of  unemployment,  a  bad  sick- 
ness, or  other  misfortune,  will  quickly  bring  them  to  the  point 
where  they  must  have  help.  But  ordinarily  they  are  making 
ends  meet.  The  wife  or  children  may  have  to  earn  part  of  the 
living,  but  the  family  is  self-supporting,  and  as  it  looks  ahead 
they  see  a  prospect  of  steady  income  and  of  continuing  self- 
support.  They  have  a  certain  sense  of  assurance,  of  confidence, 
of  hope. 

1  "One  Thousand  Homeless  Men,"  Solenberger,  pp.  9-11. 


THE  LABORER  263 

The  group  which  works  at  a  succession  of  jobs,  on  the  con- 
trary, continually  hears  the  wolf's  claws  scratching  on  the  door. 
They  live  in  constant  uncertainty,  constant  fear.  They  have 
no  assurance  of  continuing  income,  no  solid  basis  for  hope,  no 
opportunity  to  get  a  few  dollars  in  the  bank,  no  justification  in 
starting  to  buy  a  home.  They  are  living  from  hand  to  mouth, 
and  never  know  at  what  moment  the  hand  may  be  empty. 
Their  self-respect  and  honesty  are  always  under  the  strain  of 
fear ;  their  working  efficiency  is  deteriorated  by  a  continual 
change  of  jobs  that  makes  it  impossible  for  them  ever  to  attain 
efficiency  at  any.  They  are,  by  force  of  necessity,  jacks  of  all 
trades  and  masters  of  none,  and  after  they  pass  forty-five  and 
their  strength  begins  to  wane,  the  effects  of  undernourishment 
and  the  declining  courage  that  accompanies  a  life  of  fear,  bring 
steadily  declining  efficiency. 

The  "professional  casual"  '  is  a  third  distinct  type  of  resident 
laborer.  He  is  a  distinctly  lower  type  than  either  of  the  others, 
but  recruited  from  their  ranks.  Every  employment  office  is 
familiar  with  him.  Any  city  with  three  hundred  thousand 
people  will  have  perhaps  three  or  four  hundred  well-known  indi- 
viduals and  many  others  who  border  on  the  type.  Some  of 
them  are  steady  patrons  of  the  state  or  municipal  offices,  some 
of  the  Salvation  Army,  some  of  the  charities.  Others  hang 
around  saloons,  hotels,  settlement  houses.  Individuals  of  the 
type  can  be  found  in  almost  every  country  town  and  rural 
community.    They  are  a  distinct  social  group. 

At  times,  especially  in  the  winter,  the  employment  exchanges 
find  among  those  accepting  casual  or  semi-casual  employment, 
laborers  and  mechanics  who  ordinarily  work  steadily  but  who 
are  temporarily  unable  to  get  work  and  are  taking  odd  jobs  to 

iThe  writer  uses  the  word  "casual"  in  a  very  definite,  restricted  meaning,  to 
signify  one  who  works  very  irregularly  and  intermittently.  Beveridge  and  other 
English  writers,  and  some  American  writers,  also  use  the  word  "casual"  to  describe 
men  who  do  irregular  work  —  those  who  lie  in  that  fringe  between  such  irregular 
occupations  as  that  of  the  building  laborer  and  the  true  casual.  The  writer  believes 
that  the  word  "  casual "  should  be  reserved  to  those  who  have  no  desire  except  for 
the  odd  job.  This  is  the  sense  which  the  term  has  in  law,  and  it  conforms  to  a  defi- 
nite psychological  and  human  type. 


264  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

carry  them  along.  For  instance,  the  Minnesota  Public  Employ- 
ment office  carried  a  machine  operator  with  a  wife  and  family 
for  about  four  months  at  odd  jobs,  until  he  was  able  to  get  a 
steady  job.  He  has  now  been  working  steadily  for  a  year  and 
a  half  in  a  machine  shop,  has  paid  off  his  debts,  and  is  getting 
bis  family  affairs  in  shape.  But  these  are  not  casual  workers. 
They  do  not  belong  to  the  type.  They  are  doing  casual  work 
only  temporarily,  and  they  neither  live  the  life,  nor  think  the 
thoughts,  nor  have  the  point  of  view  of  the  true  casual. 

A  man  becomes  a  casual  when  he  acquires  the  casual  state 
of  mind.^  The  extreme  type  of  casual  never  seeks  more  than 
a  day's  work.  He  lives  strictly  to  the  rule,  one  day  at  a  time. 
If  you  ask  him  why  he  does  not  take  a  steady  job,  he  will  tell 
you  that  he  would  like  to,  but  that  he  hasn't  money  enough  to 
enable  him  to  live  until  pay-day,  and  no  one  will  give  him  credit. 
If  you  offer  to  advance  his  board  until  pay-day,  he  will  accept 
your  offer  and  accept  the  job  you  offer  him,  but  he  will  not  show 
up  on  the  job,  or  else  will  quit  at  the  end  of  the  first  day.  He  has 
acquired  a  standard  or  scale  of  work  and  life  that  makes  it 
almost  impossible  for  him  to  restore  himself  to  steady  employ- 
ment. He  lacks  the  desire,  the  will-power,  self-control,  ambi- 
tion, and  habits  of  industry  which  are  essential  to  it.  Some 
of  them  have  families  which  they  make  little  or  no  effort  to 
support,  never  working  if  they  can  get  some  one  else  to  feed 
them.  Others  do  not  know  in  the  morning  where  they  will 
lay  their  head  at  night.  They  live  permanently  in  the  city, 
but  have  no  residence.  Some  of  them  are  moral  failures,  some 
defectives.  The  man  who  works  irregularly,  but  who  still 
accepts  jobs  which  last  for  days  or  a  few  weeks,  has  not  com- 
pletely developed  a  casual  psychology  and  offers  far  greater 
hopes  of  rescue  to  steady  employment.^ 

The  causes  which  produce  the  casual  are  many.  A  striking 
number  of  them  are  young.^    In  general,  these  seem  to  be  de- 

1  Cf.  also  "One  Thousand  Homeless  Men,"  A.  W.  Solenberger,  Chap.  IX. 

2  Cf.  Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations  Commission,  Vol.  II.  pp.  1165-1177. 
3Cf.  "One  Thousand  Homeless  Men,"  Solenberger,  Chap.  XIII  ;  "Unemploy- 
ment, A  Social   Study,"  Rowntree  and  Lasker,  Chap.  IH;    "Unemployment,  A 


THE   LABORER  265 

fective  in  those  mental  traits  which  are  the  basis  of  industry 
and  ambition,  and  in  the  sense  of  responsibility;  defective  in 
moral  stamina  or  training,  and  addicted  to  drugs,  drink,  and 
vice;  or  defective  physically  and  unable  to  do  steady,  hard 
work.  Absence  of  the  moral  ideas  and  motives  which  cause 
most  of  us  to  work  is  probably  more  important  in  explaining 
these  younger  casuals  than  any  other  one  explanation.  A 
large  number  of  them  begin  their  casual  career  early  in  their 
industrial  lives,  acquiring  a  taste  for  change  and  developing 
an  incapacity  for  sustained  effort  while  mere  boys.  It  is  im- 
possible to  say  to  what  extent  their  unsteadiness  is  due  to  habits 
induced  by  unsatisfactory  industrial  experiences;  and  to  what 
extent  it  is  due  to  personal  defects  in  the  individuals,  physical, 
mental,  or  moral,  which  have  their  origin  in  heredity  or  in  their 
home  conditions.  It  is  probable  that  some  of  them,  if  properly 
guided  in  their  early  industrial  career,  would  have  developed 
into  steady  workmen.  It  is  equally  probable  that  many  of 
them  entered  industry  with  a  personal  psychology  that  caused 
them  naturally  to  slip  down  instead  of  climbing  up. 

When  we  turn  to  the  group  of  casuals  who  are  older  their 
explanation  is  even  more  complex.  Many  are  moral  failures, 
mental  defectives,  or  physical  unfits,  as  already  described. 
Others  are  the  residuum  of  our  labor  market.  Starting  out 
as  common  laborers,  or  even  as  skilled  workmen,  twenty  years 
before,  they  worked  steadily  for  a  time,  then  became  subject 
to  irregular  employment,  either  because  of  industrial  conditions, 
or  because  of  drink  or  vice  or  a  taste  for  traveling.  Gradually 
they  became  more  and  more  irregular  in  their  working  and  life 
habits,  and  crystallized  into  casuals  living  from  day  to  day  and 
hand  to  mouth  without  self-respect  or  ambition.  They  arc  to 
a  large  extent  parasites  in  the  body  politic,  never  working  if 
they  can  get  drink  and  food  and  a  place  to  sleep  without  work. 

Experienced  employment  men  are  unanimous  in  their  con- 
demnation of  the  unconscious  but  serious  contribution  which 

Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  II.  Beveridge,  Chaps.  V.  VI,  VII;  "The  Problem  of 
Unemployment  in  the  United  Kingdom,"  Sidney  Webb,  The  Annals,  March,  1909, 
p.  196. 


266  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

well-meaning  people  who  employ  casuals  make  to  the  ruination 
of  such  men.  For  instance :  A  professional  man  is  working 
about  his  home  in  the  spring.  He  wants  some  ashes  hauled 
out,  some  spading  and  raking  done,  the  storm  windows  taken 
off.  He  telephones  the  employment  office  for  a  laborer.  They 
send  one  at  an  agreed  price  of  35  cents  an  hour.  The  laborer 
works  seven  hours.  He  has  earned  $2.45.  The  employer 
gives  him  three  dollars,  and  tell  him  to  keep  the  change.  He 
also  gives  him  an  old  suit  of  clothes  or  a  pair  of  shoes.  The 
workman  has  been  overpaid  and  extended  charity.  He  has 
done  a  short  day's  work  of  a  kind  easier  and  pleasanter  than 
that  of  the  factory  or  building  job,  and  has  received  in  cash  and 
goods  two  or  three  times  what  he  earned.  Perhaps  this  man  was 
not  a  true  casual.  He  took  an  odd  job  because  he  could  not 
get  a  steady  one.  But  he  found,  to  his  surprise,  that  he  "got 
better  money"  for  less  work  and  with  less  restraint  upon  his 
goings  and  comings.  Good  pay  and  easy  work  is  a  lure  that 
attracts.  He  begins  to  wonder  whether  he  is  not  a  fool  to  work 
hard  every  day  when  he  can  pick  up  as  much  in  four  days  of 
casual  work  as  he  earns  in  six  of  steady  work.  The  reader 
will  immediately  wonder  whether  the  case  described  is  typical. 
The  facts  are,  that  a  majority  of  the  casual  employers  will  pay 
only  what  they  are  obligated  to  pay,  but  cases  like  the  one  cited 
occur  with  sufficient  regularity  to  make  the  casual  look  for  and 
expect  them,  and  to  occur  in  the  experience  of  any  regular 
worker  who  does  casual  work  temporarily.  Indeed,  I  have 
had  casuals  prove  to  me  by  the  actual  record  of  their  earnings 
that  they  were  earning  more  (in  the  spring  and  fall)  by  casual 
work  than  they  could  have  earned  by  steady  work,  because 
they  were  overpaid  on  part  of  their  jobs.  As  long  as  society  makes 
it  easy  for  a  man  to  earn  a  hving  by  casual  work  we  must  expect 
a  continuing  crop  of  casuals. 

The  employment  service,  at  least  in  American  cities,  should 
develop  a  policy:  (i)  of  keeping  the  wages  per  hour  for  casual 
work  as  low  as  those  for  steady  work ;  (2)  of  notifying  each 
employer  of  casuals  to  pay  the  agreed  wages,  and  no  more. 
This  may  work  a  hardship  to  some  individuals  who  carmot  do 


THE  LABORER  267 

regular  work,  but  this  is  insignificant  compared  with  the  benefit 
attained  in  checking  one  of  the  causes  of  deterioration  of  work- 
men into  casuals. 

The  English  writers  have  given  particular  attention  to  the 
probleni  of  restoring  casuals  to  steady  employment  and  check- 
ing the  forces  which  produce  casuals.  Mr.  Beveridge  showed 
in  1910  that  the  first  step  in  the  decasualization  of  labor  must 
be  the  organization  of  the  public  employment  exchanges  to 
which  all  applicants  and  all  orders  for  casual  work  would  have 
to  come, 

"and  that  this  Exchange  should  so  far  as  possible  concentrate  em- 
ployment upon  the  smallest  number  that  will  suffice  for  the  work  of 
the  group  as  a  whole ;  that  successive  jobs  under  different  employers 
should,  so  far  as  possible,  be  made  to  go  in  succession  to  the  same 
individual,  instead  of  being  spread  over  several  men  each  idle  half  or 
more  than  half  of  his  time.  In  such  a  policy  is  to  be  found  the  remedy, 
and  the  only  remedy,  for  the  most  urgent  part  of  the  unemployed 
problem  —  the  chronic  poverty  of  the  casual  labourer."' 

In  other  words,  his  suggestion  is  that  all  of  the  casual  and  short- 
time  jobs  be  given  to  part  of  the  present  group  of  irregular 
workers,  and  the  balance  forced  out  of  such  employment.  It 
proposes  that  the  most  capable  of  the  casuals  be  inducted  into 
steady  work ;  that  a  second  group  be  kept  busy  by  a  succession 
of  jobs ;  and  that  those  who  are  almost  unemployable  be  either 
cared  for  by  charity  or  restored  to  usefulness  by  medical  treat- 
ment, proper  feeding  and  training. 

The  idea  of  decasualizing  irregular  workers  has  attracted 
the  attention  of  many  students  of  the  problem.-  It  represents 
in  the  field  of  employment  the  same  concept  that  "saving  the 
sinner"  does  in  religion  and  moral  effort.  The  prevention  of 
casualization  —  the  arresting  and  reducing  of  those  forces  which 
produce  casuals  —  corresponds,  on  the  other  hand,  to  measures 
by  which  we  try  to  conse'rve  the  character  of  the  young  and 
prevent  them  from  getting  where  they  will  need  to  be  rescued. 

1  Op.  cit.,  p.  201.     The  reader  should  keep  in  mind  that  the  word  "  casual "  here 
includes  the  very  irregular  worker  as  well  as  the  pure  casual. 
*  See  references  at  end  of  chapter. 


268  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Mr.  W.  H.  Beveridge  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  only  way 
to  prevent  the  creation  of  casuals  is  to  eliminate  the  casual  job, 
and  the  only  way  to  eliminate  the  casual  job  is  to  unify  four  or 
five  demands  for  casuals  to  work  a  day  or  two  into  a  solid  week's 
work  for  one  man.     He  says : 

"...  Thrift,  sobriety,  adaptability,  initiative  are  good  things 
for  many  reasons.  They  are  apt  to  be  too  good  for  the  casual 
labourer.  An  individual  here  and  there  may  rise  superior  to  over- 
whelming odds.  The  mass  is  inevitably  demoralised  by  a  system  of 
employment  which  panders  to  every  bad  instinct  and  makes  every 
effort  at  good  hard  and  useless ;  which  by  turning  Uvehhood  into  a 
gamble  goes  far  to  take  from  idleness,  slovenUness,  and  irresponsibihty 
their  punishment  and  from  assiduity  its  reward.  The  casual  labourer 
is  the  rock  upon  which  all  hopes  of  thrift  or  self-help  or  trade  union 
organization,  no  less  than  all  schemes  of  public  assistance,  are 
shattered.  When  it  is  asked  what  is  to  be  done  for  the  casual  class, 
the  answer  must  be  that  the  only  thing  to  be  done  either  for  or  with 
the  casual  class  is  to  abolish  it,  and  that  the  only  way  of  aboHshing 
it  is  to  abolish  the  demand  which  it  serves. 

"The  chronic  under-employment  of  the  casual  labourer  is  no  in- 
exphcable  or  exceptional  phenomenon.  It  is  the  resultant  of  normal 
demand  and  supply  —  of  the  need  of  employers  for  irregular  men  and 
the  readiness  of  men  to  do  irregular  work.  It  cannot  be  cured  by  any 
assistance  of  individuals.  It  can  be  cured,  theoretically,  either  by 
cutting  off  the  supply  or  by  cutting  off  the  demand,  that  is  to  say, 
either  by  making  aU  men  unwilling  to  do  irregular  work  or  by  making 
it  impossible  for  them  to  get  it  to  do.  .  .  .  The  soiuces  of  supply 
to  the  casual  labour  market  include  every  form  of  human  weakness 
and  misfortune  and  every  point  of  industrial  stress.  Something  may 
indeed  be  done  to  affect  particular  sources  —  to  divert  boys  from  vm- 
educative  to  educative  employments,  to  mitigate  the  hardships  of 
industrial  transitions,  to  lessen  the  pressure  of  competition  in  the 
towns  by  making  the  country  less  repellant  to  the  countryman. 
AU  this  wiU  leave  abundant  sources  untouched.  .  .  .  Diminution  of 
the  supply  of  casual  labour  would  be  at  best  but  an  indirect  way  of 
forcing  a  modification  of  the  employers'  demand  for  casual  labour. 
It  is,  therefore,  to  the  modification  of  their  demand,  in  other  words,  to 
its 'decasualization,' that  attention  must  ultimately  be  directed.  .  .  . 

"...  The  time  is  ripe  to  consider  the  obvious  criticism  upon  de- 


THE   LABORER  269 

casualization  that,  in  making  work  more  regular  for  some,  it  throws 
others  out  altogether.  The  fact  is  undeniable.  The  avowed  object 
of  de-casualization  is  to  replace  every  thousand  half-employed  men 
by  five  hundred  fully-employed  men.  What  of  the  dis-placed  five 
hundred?  .  .  . 

"If  the  men  do  not  and  cannot,  spite  of  all  Labour  Exchanges, 
find  work  elsewhere,  this  must  be  either  because  there  is  no  work  for 
them  to  do  —  i.e.,  because  the  country  is  already  more  fuU  of  men 
than  it  can  hold  —  or  because  they  are  inefiicient.  On  either  of  these 
last  suppositions,  de-casualization  becomes  even  more  necessary 
than  before.  If  the  country  is  already  more  full  than  it  can  hold, 
i.e.,  is  over-populated,  then  it  is  a  matter  of  crying  urgency  to  replace 
every  thousand  half-employed  men  (aU  potential  fathers  of  un- 
necessary families)  by  five  hundred  fully-employed  men,  and  to  leave 
for  the  others  no  choice  but  emigration.  If  the  men  are  inefficient, 
i.e.,  capable  of  working  only  occasionally  and  not  often  enough  for  a 
living,  then  they  cannot  safely  be  left  at  large  to  bring  up  in  semi- 
starvation  fresh  generations  of  inefficients.  .  .  . 

"The  practical  answer  to  the  supposed  objection  is  to  be  found  in 
the  manner  of  applying  de-casualization  in  practice.  In  the  first 
place,  the  change  could  and  should  be  made  in  a  time  of  good  trade 
rather  than  in  one  of  bad  trade,  so  as  to  give  those  displaced  the 
chance  of  at  once  finding  other  situations.  ...  In  the  second  place, 
the  change  could  and  should  be  made  gradually.  There  need  be  no 
visions  of  a  vast  and  unmanageable  surplus  thrown  by  de-casualization 
upon  the  hands  of  the  community  at  a  moment's  notice.  De- 
casualization,  it  may  conveniently  be  noted  at  this  point,  implies 
something  more  than  the  mere  provision  of  Labour  Exchanges.  It 
implies  also  a  definite  policy  at  those  Exchanges  in  concentrating  work 
on  the  smallest  possible  number  instead  of  spreading  it  out  over  many 
men.  The  rate  at  which  this  concentration  shall  be  carried  out  is  very 
largely  within  the  control  of  the  Exchange.  De-casualization,  in  other 
words,  once  the  Exchanges  were  at  work,  might  be  made  to  proceed 
as  slowly  or,  within  limits,  as  quickly  as  was  desired.  A  great  part 
of  it  would  be  accomplished  by  squeezing  out  the  very  lowest  class  of 
men  who  now  live  really  on  sources  other  than  their  own  labour  — 
upon  their  family  or  upon  charity ;  the  day's  work  that  they  now  get 
once  a  week  or  once  a  fortnight,  and  that  does  them  no  real  good, 
might  go  to  some  other  man  now  getting  three  or  four  days  a  week 
and  make  for  him  all  the  difference  between  sufficiency  and  slow 


270  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

starvation.  A  great  part  again  could  be  accomplished  by  squeezing 
out  the  highest  class  —  the  young  and  vigorous  —  who,  if  forced  to 
it,  might  find  other  openings.  Another  part  would  consist  simply  of 
preventing  any  entry  of  fresh  men  to  replace  those  who  died.  In  the 
third  place,  since  a  great  many  of  those  thrown  out,  especially  at 
first,  would  be  men  of  a  very  low  class,  unfitted  by  privation  and  bad 
habits  for  immediate  undertaking  of  regular  work,  it  would  be 
necessary  to  have  available  some  form  of  training  or  convalescent 
institution  where  they  could  be  dieted  and  disciplined  into  other 
ways."  ^ 

Sidney  Webb  speaks  of  this  analysis  of  the  situation  by  Mr. 
Beveridge  as  one  of  "the  most  momentous  of  this  generation 
in  the  realm  of  economic  sciences."  ^  It  is  a  suggestion  that 
individual  employment  offices  in  America  have  carried  out  in 
a  small  way  and  found  practical,  but  it  cannot  be  utilized  with 
sufficient  effectiveness  to  decrease  the  underemployment  and 
moral  deterioration  of  the  casual  laborer  except  by  a  well-estab- 
lished, comprehensive  employment  system  directed  by  men 
with  training  commensurate  with  the  difficulties  of  their  task. 

We  have  discussed  thus  far  three  main  types  found  among 
the  common  laborers  resident  in  any  community:  those  hold- 
ing regular  positions,  those  who  hold  two  or  more  positions 
during  the  year  but  work  whenever  they  can  get  work,  and  the 
casual  who  is  idle  whenever  he  can  avoid  work.  The  two  other 
types  of  common  laborers  to  which  we  referred  in  our  classifica- 
tion are  migrants  rather  than  residents.  The  typical  charac- 
teristic of  their  lives  is  that  they  have  no  permanent  abiding 
place  and  no  permanent  employer.  The  distinction  between 
the  two  types  is  practically  the  distinction  between  the  irregular 
resident  laborer  and  the  casual  —  one  seeks  employment  and 
pursues  chances  to  work,  the  other  travels  and  works  as  little 
as  possible.  The  superficial  differences  between  the  two  may 
not  be  noticeable,  but  the  moral  differences  are  significant. 

Many  farm  hands,  carpenters,  painters,  and  other  classes 
of  mechanics,  as  well  as  laborers  who  are  permanent  residents 

»  "Unemployment:   A  Problem  of  Industry,"  Beveridge,  pp.  201-206. 
'"Prevention  of, Destitution,"  Webb,  p.  130. 


THE  LABORER  271 

of  specific  communities,  at  times  find  it  advisable  temporarily 
to  seek  employment  in  other  communities,  but  either  return 
to  the  communities  from  which  they  started,  or  take  up  a  per- 
manent abode  in  the  new  locality.  These  temporary  migrants 
are  not  the  persons  whom  we  are  now  discussing.  They  migrate 
from  one  place  to  another  to  work,  but  are  not  part  of  the  mi- 
gratory labor  group.  They  do  not  spend  their  lives  in  travel. 
They  are  steady  workmen  who  have  temporarily  found  it 
necessary  or  promising  to  try  their  fortunes  in  a  new  place. 

It  is  true  that  many  of  them  are  caught  by  the  economic 
forces  or  the  lures  and  temptations  which  surround  the  man 
who  is  on  the  road  and  degenerate  into  true  migratory  workers. 
As  one  of  the  witnesses  before  the  New  York  Commission  well 
said: 

"We  talk  a  great  deal  about  men  becoming  tramps  and  hoboes. 
In  my  experience  over  a  great  many  years,  and  particularly  in  my 
connection  with  the  Bowery  Branch,  with  which  I  have  been  con- 
nected for  ten  years  and  as  active  secretary  for  seven,  I  will  give  it  as 
my  unqualified  opinion  that  a  great  many  of  these  men  are  becoming 
encouraged  in  becoming  disciples  of  the  road  because  of  their  earnest 
efforts  to  find  employment,  and  continually  seeking  it  from  one  town 
to  another.  I  have  very  many  cases  which  I  could  cite  of  men, 
intelligent,  capable  feUows,  who  have  become  virtually  tramps  be- 
cause of  their  continued  search  for  work,  and  trying  to  readapt  or 
readjust  themselves  to  changed  conditions.  And  I  therefore  think 
it  is  entirely  wTong  for  the  State  to  impose  that  burden  on  the  man, 
when  the  State  can  more  adequately  and  thoroughly  and  more 
successfully  render  the  service  by  putting  in  his  reach  information 
facilities  which  will  enable  him  quickly  to  adjust  himself  to  the  con- 
ditions in  which  he  finds  himself."  ^ 

The  attempt  to  transplant  one's  self,  when  it  does  not  yield 
good  results,  leads  easily  to  a  second  and  third  move,  and  not 
infrequently  to  an  inability  to  stay  anywhere. 

The  true  or  confirmed  migrants  —  the  Ishmaelites  of  modem 
times  —  have  no  abodes.     They  live  where  they  happen  to  be. 

*  Mr.  Harry  W.  Hoot  in  Report  of  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability 
and  Unemployment,  April,  191 1,  Appendix  11,  p.  197- 


272  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

If  one  of  them  gives  you  a  permanent  address,  it  is  the  place  he 
left  years  ago,  never  to  return,  or  else  it  is  fictitious.  They 
generally  either  have  no  family,  or  several  families.  The  ones 
they  have,  have  usually  been  abandoned ;  and  ordinarily  there 
is  scant  welcome  if  the  wanderer  makes  an  occasional  visit. 

"  They  live  in  the  camp  or  lodging-house.  Their  pleasure  is  found  in 
the  saloon  and  its  accompaniments  ;  in  the  pool-room  or  the  movies  ;  or 
in  the  rough  jokes  of  the  camp.  When  in  town  they  are  the  prey  of  the 
saloon,  the  dive,  the  second-hand  store,  the  employment  agency,  the 
municipal  police  court,  the  lodging-house  thief,  the  pickpocket.  In 
camp  their  lot  is  often  little  better.  The  writer  has  known  cases 
where  men  have  worked  a  month  and  have  been  in  debt  to  their  em- 
ployer at  the  end  for  employment  fees,  post-ofl&ce  fees,  board,  hospital 
fees,  and  transportation."^ 

As  a  result, 

"There  has  been  a  remarkable  increase  in  the  number  of  these  men 
(tramps)  in  the  United  States  during  the  last  two  decades.  Previous 
to  the  Civil  War,  the  word  'tramp'  did  not  appear  upon  the  statute 
books  of  any  state  of  the  Union.  Today  nearly  all  recognize  his 
existence  and  endeavor  to  cope  with  the  problem  which  he  presents. 
Twenty  years  ago  a  few  small  cheap  lodging  houses,  buUt  for  the 
accommodation  of  homeless  working  men,  might  have  been  found  in 
some  half  dozen  of  our  largest  cities.  Today  there  are  a  number  of 
such  lodging  houses  in  every  large  city  in  the  country ;  they  house  not 
only  hundreds  and  thousands  of  'homeless'  workingmen,  but  also 
large  numbers  of  tramps,  beggars,  and  petty  criminals."  ^ 

"With  the  exception  of  Greater  New  York,  the  city  of  Chicago  has 
a  greater  number  of  such  lodging  houses  and  a  larger  floating  tran- 
sient population  than  any  other  city  in  the  United  States.  The  reasons 
for  this  are  many.  Situated  in  the  heart  of  the  Mississippi  Valley  at 
the  foot  of  Lake  Michigan  it  attracts  to  itself  during  a  part  of  the  year 
thousands  of  harvest  hands  from  the  northwest,  deck  hands  from  the 
lake  boats,  railway  construction  laborers,  men  from  the  lumber  camps 
of  the  North,  and  men  from  all  over  the  Central  West  who  are  em- 
ployed in  seasonal  trades  of  many  sorts." 

1  Cf.  "A  Clearing  House  for  Labor,"  Lescohier,  Atlantic  Monthly,  June,  1918. 
*  "One  Thousand  Homeless  Men,"  Solenberger,  p.  2,  p.  6.     Cf.  also  Final  Report 
Industrial  Relations  Commission,  Vol.  H,  pp.  1165-1177;  1341-1358,  1359-1362. 


THE  LABORER  273 

Mr.  A.  H.  Larson,  formerly  manager  of  a  branch  ofl&ce  of 
the  National  Employment  Exchange/  gave  a  description  of  the 
process  of  degeneration  through  which  many  workers  pass 
which  coincides  with  the  writer's  observations : 

TESTIMONY  OF   MR.   LARSON 

Mr.  Larson.  .  .  .  The  conditions  leading  up  to  the  homeless  un- 
employed rest  largely  on  the  environment  to  which  he  is  introduced 
in  the  commissary  camp.  This  is  not  original,  but  I  want  it  on  the 
record,  because  I  think  it  is  important.  Take,  for  instance,  a  young 
American  who  is  brought  up  on  a  farm ;  he  comes  to  the  city.  He  has 
only  a  few  dollars,  and  he  may  go  to  a  cheap  lodging  house,  and  pay 
15  or  20  cents  for  two  or  three  nights,  until  he  gets  a  job,  and  goes  out 
on  contract  work.  He  Kves  in  a  commissary,  that,  originally,  the 
contractor  may  have  intended  to  be  sanitary,  but  when  you  get  an 
aggregation  of  men  in  a  commissary  it  is  quite  difficidt  to  keep  it 
in  a  sanitary  condition  unless  it  is  strictly  supervised. 

Mr.  Leiserson.  Do  you  state  from  actual  experience  with  people 
in  camps? 

Mr.  Larson.     Yes,  sir. 

Mr.  Leiserson.     State  how  you  got  your  experience. 

Mr.  Larson.  I  got  my  experience  from  taking  them  to  jobs  from 
New  York  City  from  1909  off  and  on  until  191 2.  When  a  man  lives 
in  an  insanitary  camp,  usually  he  works  there  four  to  six  months, 
and  he  lives  in  filthy  conditions.  At  one  end  of  the  bar  he  gets  bis 
sardines  and  his  loaf  of  bread  and  comes  back  to  the  middle  of  the  bar 
and  gets  his  bottle  of  beer,  and  that  is  his  dinner.  Then  he  comes 
back  to  New  York,  and  the  cheap  lodging  house  on  the  Bowery  is 
not  nearly  as  repulsive  to  him  as  it  was  the  first  time  he  came  to  the 
city.  He  will  stay  around  a  lodging  house  for  a  few  days,  each  morn- 
ing going  out  and  looking  for  work.  When  he  has  been  there  a  week 
probably,  it  suddenly  dawns  on  him  that  he  is  about  the  only  man 
in  the  lodging  house  looking  for  work,  and  he  wants  to  know  the 
reason,  and  then  he  is  instructed  by  acquaintances  he  has  made,  how 
to  live  in  New  York  City  without  working.  You  heard  something 
last  winter  about  men  being  sent  out  on  snow  from  the  municipal 
lodging  house,  and  that  they  would  not  work.     I  refuse  to  believe 

'  This  was  a  private  employment  agency  of  the  better  type  which  operated  within 
the  city  of  New  York. 

T 


2  74  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

that  those  men  would  not  work  because  they  were  underfed.  Eighty 
per  cent  of  the  men  going  to  the  municipal  lodging  house  are  physically 
capable  of  doing  ordinary  manual  labor. 

Mr.  Leiserson.  Will  you  state  just  what  experience  you  had  in  the 
municipal  lodging  house  that  caused  you  to  speak  of  this  particular 
point  ? 

Mr.  Larson.     I  was  social  secretary  there  for  two  years. 

Mr.  Leiserson.     And  that  — 

Mr.  Larson  (interrupting).  As  such  I  tried  to  get  work  for  the 
men  and  help  runaway  boys  to  get  back  home,  and  so  on.  Sixty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  best  men  applying  at  the  municipal  lodging 
house  —  I  say  the  best  men,  because  I  did  not  have  time  to  interview 
any  but  the  men  that  I  felt  I  had  the  biggest  chance  of  doing  some- 
thing for  —  consequently  I  picked  out  the  best  men  I  saw  in  hne  ;  I 
asked  them  to  come  to  my  desk.  Sixty-five  per  cent  of  the  best  men 
applying  at  the  municipal  lodging  house  were  there  through  in- 
temperance. Don't  get  that  confused  with  the  statement  that  80 
per  cent  of  the  men  are  capable  of  doing  physical  labor.  The  fact  that 
a  man  is  down  and  out  through  drink  does  not  necessarily  mean  that 
he  has  been  able  to  earn  enough  money  to  drink  enough  whiskey  to 
break  his  physical  constitution.  But  it  does  mean  that  through  his 
environment  at  one  point  or  another  he  has  reached  a  point  or  he  has 
reached  a  stage  of  disregard  of  moral  respect  — 

Mr.  Leiserson.  Would  you  put  the  responsibihty  for  that  lapse 
on  the  part  of  that  —  that  lack  of  self-respect  on  the  part  of  the  man 
—  on  the  conditions  in  the  camps  —  the  commissary  conditions,  and 
so  on? 

Mr.  Larson.  Starting  with  the  labor  camp  and  graduating  in  the 
cheap  lodging  houses. 

Mr.  Leiserson.  You  think  that  those  conditions  manufacture  these 
men  who  are  vmwilling  to  work? 

Mr.  Larson.     I  certainly  do.^ 

The  employment  service  should  develop  very  definite  policies 
for  dealing  with  the  various  types  of  laborers.  They  should, 
in  the  first  place,  keep  a  very  careful  record  of  their  experience 
with  each  individual.  Too  frequently,  employment  officials 
have  said,  "He  is  just  a  common  laborer,"  and  have  (uncon- 
sciously) assumed  that  any  common  laborer  could  be  sent  to 
1  Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations  Commission,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1268-1269. 


THE  LABORER  275 

any  employer,  just  as  any  sack  of  wheat  might  be  sent  to  any 
miller.  Nothing  is  farther  from  the  truth.  Each  laborer  has 
special  capacities  and  peculiarities,  and  the  employment  official, 
as  he  places  him  from  time  to  time,  should  be  seeking  to  determine 
the  kind  of  job  for  which  each  man  is  best  fitted  and  to  get  him 
into  that  kind  of  a  job.  But  it  is  impossible  to  keep  each  man 
in  mind,  and  the  official's  memory  must  necessarily  consist  of 
an  office  record.  Every  placement  should  be  followed  up  and 
its  results  noted,  not  for  the  purpose  simply  of  discovering  which 
men  are  unreliable,  but  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  the  place- 
ment officers  to  sift  the  laborers  and  constructively  assist  them 
into  steadier  work.  Many  a  man  has  been  lifted  out  of  casual 
work  into  steadier  employment  by  such  help;  and  even  more 
men  have  been  changed  from  irregular  to  regular  employees. 
The  employment  officer  must  continually  remember  that  a  man's 
value  to  society  is  in  large  measure  determined  by  the  regularity 
of  his  work  and  life.  It  is  the  men  and  women  who  work 
steadily,  have  continuing  responsibilities,  and  who  are  permanent 
members  of  some  community  who  are  the  foundation  upon 
which  American  democracy  rests.  Every  man  who  does  his 
little  to  stabilize  work  and  lives  does  a  little  for  the  strengthen- 
ing and  improvement  of  our  national  life.  The  employment 
service  cannot,  of  course,  start  out  to  solve  all  of  the  problems 
connected  with  the  unemployables  and  semi-employables  who 
will  come  under  its  observation.  It  is  not  a  rescue  mission. 
But  its  business  is  one  which  so  intimately  affects  the  life  of 
its  customers,  that  it  must  at  least  assume  responsibility  for 
intelligent,  careful  direction  of  those  who  apply  to  it  for  work. 
It  owes  this  duty  to  them,  to  the  employers  for  whom  they  will 
work,  and  to  the  nation. 


CHAPTER  XrV 
FARM   LABOR 

A  GOOD  deal  has  been  said  and  written  in  recent  years  about 
"the  farm  labor  problem."  One  can  as  accurately  speak  of 
"the  manufacturing  labor  problem."  For  farming,  like  manu- 
facturing, presents  a  wide  variety  of  labor  problems.  There  is 
as  much  difference  between  the  farm  labor  problem  in  a  dairy 
district  and  the  farm  labor  problem  in  a  small  grain  area  or  an 
irrigated  apple  district,  as  there  is  between  the  labor  problem 
in  a  machine  shop  and  that  in  a  beet  sugar  factory  or  an  oyster 
cannery.  Failure  to  recognize  the  complexity  of  "the  farm 
labor  problem"  can  only  lead  to  attempted  solutions  that 
will  prove  inadequate.  A  second  important  fact  should  also 
be  noted:  Those  who  speak  of  "the  farm  labor  problem" 
have  in  mind  the  farmer's  labor  problem.  They  are  thinking 
of  the  shortage  of  skilled  farm  hands  whjch  so  often  embarrasses 
the  farmer.  They  have  often  overlooked  the  fact  that  the  farm 
hand  may  possibly  have  a  "farm  labor  problem"  that  also  needs 
solution.  We  believe  that  this  chapter  will  demonstrate  that 
the  farmer's  problem  cannot  be  solved  unless  the  "farm  hand's" 
problem  is  solved  too.  We  hope  that  the  discussion  may  help 
stimulate  that  careful  study  of  the  situation  in  each  state  which 
is  the  first  requisite  to  an  adequate  farm  labor  policy.  It  will 
not  be  possible  to  relieve  the  farm  labor  shortage  which  obtains 
in  many  sections  of  the  country  unless  we  meet  each  local  situa- 
tion with  a  policy  which  fits  that  particular  situation. 

I.   Farm  Labor  Demand  and  the  Labor  Shortage 

The  shortage  of  competent,  responsible  farm  hands  is  no  fig- 
ment of  the  farmer's  imagination.  It  is  a  serious  reahty.  It 
has  resulted  in  thousands  of  skilled  farmers  selling  their  farms 
and  retiring  from  the  business.     It  has  resulted  in  other  thou- 

276 


FARM   LABOR  277 

sands  leasing  their  farms  to  tenants.  It  has  reduced  the  output 
of  American  agriculture  and  retarded  the  development  of  farm- 
ing. If  the  shortage  consisted  of  a  scarcity  of  harvest  hands 
or  other  but  slightly  skilled  help,  it  would  not  be  difficult  to 
deal  with.  But  it  is  a  shortage  of  men  competent  to  handle 
modern  farm  machinery  and  valuable  horses;  of  men  able  to 
cultivate  corn,  care  for  orchards,  or  manage  stock. 

Many  reasons  for  the  scarcity  have  been  suggested.  The 
Country  Life  Commission  showed  that  our  democratic  civiliza- 
tion spurs  the  ambitious,  competent  farm  hand  to  become  a 
tenant  and  eventually  a  farm  owner;  that  shorter  hours  of 
labor,  easier  access  to  diversion,  and  often  higher  wages  in  the 
cities,  draw  the  young  people  from  the  farms  to  city  industries, 
and  that  the  indifference  of  many  farmers  to  the  comfort  of 
their  men  deters  laborers  from  accepting  farm  work.  Unfor- 
tunately for  the  farmer,  it  is  generally  the  best  of  the  young 
people  who  seek  a  richer  life  away  from  the  farm,  and  the  loss 
to  the  rural  community  when  the  young  people  go  to  the  cities 
is  greater  than  mere  numbers  indicate.  By  a  natural  process 
of  sifting,  most  of  the  more  competent  young  farm  hands  either 
become  farm  operators  or  leave  farming,  while  intermittent  work 
and  irregular  living  impair  the  efficiency  of  a  large  percentage 
of  those  who  remain  farm  laborers. 

There  is  another  cause  of  farm  labor  shortage  of  much  impor- 
tance. The  scarcity  is  partly  due  to  the  violent  fluctuations 
in  the  demand  for  such  labor.  Irregularities  of  demand  have 
played  an  important  part  in  creating  deficiencies  of  supply. 
The  reliable  type  of  farm  worker  is  driven  away  from  agriculture 
by  inability  to  secure  steady  employment.  No  plan  to  produce 
an  adequate  supply  of  farm  labor  will  succeed  unless  the  workers 
can  support  a  family  by  farm  work. 

Our  writers  have  been  looking  at  the  farm  labor  question 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  farmer,  and  it  may  throw  some 
light  on  the  problem  to  now  approach  it  from  the  angle  of  the  em- 
ployment market.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  the  farmer 
and  agriculture  can  stand  in  any  different  relation  to  wage 
workers  than  other  industries. 


278  THE   LABOR   MARKET 

The  fact  that  even  large  farms  employ  but  a  small  number 
of  men,  as  compared  with  the  number  employed  in  what  the 
cities  call  a  small  manufacturing  or  constructing  business, 
has  caused  farmers  to  overlook  the  necessity  of  studying  the 
labor  aspects  of  their  farm  labor  problem.  They  have  not 
realized  that  the  farm  labor  situation  is  but  a  part  of  the  general 
labor  situation.  They  have  not  recognized  the  fact  that  agri- 
culture is  competing  with  urban  industries  for  its  labor.  It  is 
now  important  to  emphasize  that  the  farmer  and  the  housewife 
have  reached  the  time  in  our  national  development  when  they 
must  adapt  themselves  to  the  conditions  in  the  labor  market, 
and  employ  their  help  on  a  modern  business  basis. 

The  employment  exchange  manager,  when  he  looks  at  the 
farm  labor  problem,  sees  it  from  an  entirely  different  point  of 
view  than  the  agriculturist  or  the  educator.  To  him^  the  farmer 
is  simply  an  employer  looking  for  labor.  Agriculture  is  one  of 
the  industries  seeking  men  to  do  its  work.  Different  farms, 
and  different  kinds  of  farming,  represent  different  types  of  agri- 
cultural establishments,  requiring  men  of  different  kinds  of 
skill  and  various  degrees  of  strength,  for  var3dng  periods  of 
time.  The  employment  man  knows  from  his  experience,  that 
the  success  of  agriculture  in  finding  the  men  it  needs  depends 
fundamentally  upon  the  ability  of  the  agricultural  industry  to 
offer  attractive  labor  opportunities  to  the  men  it  seeks.  He 
immediately  asks  himself:  "What  does  agriculture  offer  the 
farm  laborer  in  the  way  of  a  vocation,  an  adequate  livelihood, 
a  satisfactory  life?  "  His  answer  to  this  question  makes  clear 
some  of  the  reasons  for  the  scarcity  of  good  farm  help. 

TJie  farm  offers,  to  a  large  part  of  the  skilled  men  it  needs, 
irregular  work,  no  definite  hours  of  labor,  isolation,  and  in 
many  districts,  wages  lower  than  those  in  other  employment.  The 
responsible,  self-respecting  workingman,  whether  urban  or 
agricultural,  wants  steady  work,  definite  hours  of  labor,  definite 
duties,  satisfactory  living  conditions,  companionship,  and  wages 
adequate  to  afford  him  a  good  livelihood.  "The  country," 
says  the  Country  Life  Commission  (and  the  employment  man), 
"must  meet  the  essential  conditions  offered   by  the  town,  or 


FARM   LABOR  279 

change  the  kind  of  farming."  .  .  .  "The  shortage  of  labor 
seems  to  be  the  least  marked  where  the  laborer  is  best  cared  for" 
(pp.  94,  97).  Unless  farming  can  offer  labor  opportunities  as 
good  as  those  offered  by  other  industries  it  will  continue  to 
suffer  from  its  present  scarcity  of  good  workmen.  Every  farmer 
who  offers  steady  employment  at  fair  wages,  with  reasonable 
hours  of  labor  and  proper  living  conditions,  is  using  one  of  the 
most  dependable  methods  to  assist  the  nation  to  solve  the 
farm  labor  problem. 

The  unsteadiness  of  farm  work  not  only  deters  men  from  tak- 
ing up  farm  labor  as  an  occupation,  but  encourages  farmers 
to  try  to  get  all  they  can  out  of  the  men  they  employ  tempo- 
rarily. Since  the  farmer  is  not  trying  to  make  the  man  like  his 
place  and  remain  there,  he  is  apt  to  demand  longer  hours  of 
labor  and  more  work  than  he  would  from  a  man  whom  he  planned 
to  hold  permanently.  On  the  average,  he  does  not  provide 
as  good  sleeping  accommodations  as  he  would  for  steady  help, 
and  often  fails  to  provide  as  good  board.  The  inferior  class 
of  transient  laborers  who  go  to  the  farms  under  existing  condi- 
tions are  an  excuse  in  the  farmer's  mind  for  the  perpetuation 
of  such  conditions.  The  situation  works  in  a  circle:  The 
farm  gets  a  poor  class  of  help  because  of  its  unsteady  demand 
for  men  and  deficient  working  conditions,  and  it  continues  the 
unsteady  demand  and  those  labor  conditions  because  it  gets  a 
poor  class  of  help. 

Agriculture's  demand  for  labor,  like  that  of  the  urban  indus- 
tries, is  of  three  main  types :  A  demand  for  steady  or  year- 
round  help ;  a  demand  for  busy  season  help ;  and  a  demand  for 
short-time  or  casual  help.  The  first  of  these  t^-pes  is  found 
typically  on  dairy  farms,  and  where  diversified  crops  combined 
with  stock  raising  make  continuity  of  employment  possible. 
The  second,  or  crop  season,  demand  consists  of  offers  of  farm 
employment  during  the  crop  growing  season.  In  almost  every 
section  of  the  country  there  is  a  vigorous  call  each  spring  for 
farm  hands  to  work  until  the  crop  has  been  gathered  and  cither 
marketed  or  stored.  The  third,  or  casual,  demand  is  found 
at  the  rush  seasons,  when  farmers  want  extra  help  for  days  or 


28o  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

weeks.  The  year-round  and  crop  season  demands  are  for  "all- 
round"  farm  hands,  for  skilled  and  responsible  men.  Much 
of  the  short  period  demand,  such  as  the  small  grain  harvest 
and  fruit  picking,  can  be  satisfied  by  inexperienced  help.  Only 
a  minority  of  skilled  workers  is  required. 

The  demand  for  year-round  help  is  the  ideal  type  of  labor 
demand.  It  offers  continuous  employment  to  the  workman, 
gives  him  a  definite  annual  wage  and  permits  him  to  have  a  per- 
manent residence ;  while  it  keeps  the  farmer  continuously  suppUed 
with  help,  enables  him  to  calculate  his  approximate  annual  labor 
costs  in  advance,  and  keeps  his  capital  investment  on  his  farm 
profitably  employed  throughout  the  year.  But  the  demand 
for  year-round  men  is,  unfortunately,  a  minor  element  in  the 
demand  for  farm  labor.  The  larger  farms  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  keep  a  small  number  of  steady  employees ;  dairy  and 
stock  farms  in  most  cases  do  not  vary  their  labor  force  through 
the  year,  and  some  farmers  who  could  dispense  with  help 
during  the  winter  months  keep  their  men  through  the  dull 
season  if  they  will  accept  reduced  wages.  Farmers  can  do 
more  to  relieve  the  farm  labor  shortage  by  reorganizing  their 
crop  and  stock  system  so  as  to  spread  their  work  more  uniformly 
through  the  year,  and  thus  create  a  steady  demand  for  skilled 
farm  hands,  than  by  any  other  single  measure.  It  is  of  course 
true  that  the  best  of  the  farm  hands  will,  on  the  average,  marry 
and  either  become  tenants  or  farm  owners.  It  will  probably 
be  difficult,  at  least  in  the  immediate  future,  to  develop  any 
considerable  number  of  married  men  who  will  live  in  tenant 
houses  on  the  farm  and  work  as  farm  laborers.  The  farm  laborer 
who  ''is  worth  his  salt"  tends,  under  American  conditions, 
to  acquire  control  of  a  farm  and  go  into  business  for  himself 
when  he  marries.  There  is  an  essential  difference  at  this  point 
between  the  farm  wage  earner  and  the  city  wage  earner.  The 
one  goes  into  business  for  himself  when  he  marries ;  the  other's 
occupation  is  not  disturbed  by  his  marriage. 

The  crop  season  demand  corresponds  to  the  contractor's 
spring  demand  for  carpenters  and  other  building  mechanics; 
or  to  the  manufacturer's  caU  for  skilled  workers  for  his  busy 


FARM  LABOR  281 

season.  The  farmer,  like  these  other  employers,  is  seeking 
skilled,  experienced  workers  for  a  period  of  months,  with  the 
full  expectation  of  discharging  them  as  soon  as  his  busy  season 
ends.  And,  like  these  others,  he  has  been  experiencing  increas- 
ing difficulty  in  recent  years  in  finding  this  skilled  help  when 
it  is  needed.  They  are  all  complaining  about  a  shortage  of 
"good  men."  The  contractor  laments  the  fact  that  so  few  of 
the  mechanics  he  can  obtain  have  really  "learned  their  trade." 
The  manufacturer,  after  long  dependence  upon  immigration, 
is  now  seeking  to  provide  himself  with  skilled  men  by  promoting 
industrial  education.  The  farmer  complains  incessantly  at  the 
scarcity  of  men  who  are  competent  in  farm  work.  All  three 
are  embarrassed  by  their  inability  to  get  men  who  will  "stick." 

The  demand  for  crop  season  labor,  as  already  suggested,  is 
the  most  difficult  demand  to  fill.  It  calls  for  men  of  as  good 
quahty  as  year-round  hands,  but  does  not  offer  advantages  to 
workmen  sufficient  to  keep  an  adequate  supply  of  such  men  in 
the  market.  The  man  who  fills  the  crop  season  demand  must 
find  other  work  during  the  winter  months.  This  is  the  dull 
period  in  a  majority  of  our  industries,  and  especially  in  the  rural 
counties.  The  supply  of  winter  work  for  such  farm  hands  is 
not  adequate,  and  if  obtained  at  all  generally  requires  migra- 
tion to  another  locaHty.  Some  go  to  the  woods  or  the  mines, 
others  to  factories  or  casual  work.  But  a  large  part  of  them 
face  probable  unemployment  for  a  large  part  of  the  winter. 
Except  in  localities  where  the  crop  season  demand  is  so  limited 
that  local  laborers  who  find  other  local  work  during  the  winter 
months  can  meet  the  need,  the  situation  almost  inevitably 
drives  the  steady,  reliable  man  who  wants  a  dependable  livcU- 
hood  to  seek  some  employment  in  which  he  can  at  least  hve  in 
a  community  where  there  is  a  prospect  of  winter  employment. 

Many  farmers  want  skilled  men  for  even  shorter  periods. 
Each  spring  there  is  a  strong  call  for  skilled  men  to  work  but 
a  few  weeks  during  seeding.  Later  in  the  season  the  farm 
develops  short-time  demands  for  help  for  haying,  harvesting, 
threshing,  corn  husking,  potato  picking,  fruit  picking,  and  pack- 
ing, and  other  rush  season  needs,  but  these  require  but  a  small 


282  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

percentage  of  skilled  workers.  Much  of  the  work  can  -be  done 
by  able-bodied  persons  after  brief  instruction. 

This  demand  resembles  the  contractor's  offer  of  employment 
on  specific  jobs  to  terminate  with  the  completion  of  the  job,  and 
the  manufacturer's  or  merchant's  employment  of  extra  skilled 
help  for  short  rush  periods.  The  demand  for  skilled  help 
thus  appears  under  three  forms :  for  steady  help  to  work  the 
year  round,  for  season  help,  and  for  short-time  or  peak-load 
help. 

Large  farms  often  hire  all  three  classes  of  help,  —  year-round, 
crop  season,  and  rush  period  —  just  as  the  large  factory  or  con- 
tractor does;  while  the  smaller  farms  depend  upon  a  steady 
man  with  extra  short-time  help  in  the  harvest,  or  hire  help 
only  during  the  rush  periods.  A  farm  of  about  1000  acres  in 
central  Minnesota,  which  produced  milk  and  beef  cattle,  hogs, 
corn,  wheat,  oats,  rye,  and  barley,  epitomizes  the  labor  policies 
which  American  farmers  have  adopted  to  make  their  outlay 
for  labor  fluctuate  with  the  volume  of  their  work.  Four  or 
five  men  were  hired  the  year  round.  Season  help  was  hired  in 
March  or  April  to  work  until  December.  They  were  the  main 
dependence  for  corn  cultivating  and  for  summer  fallowing. 
Extra  hands  were  hired  for  three  or  four  weeks  in  April  and 
May  for  seeding,  and  then  discharged.  Early  in  July  haying 
hands  were  employed  by  the  day,  most  of  whom  could  remain 
through  the  harvest  if  they  cared  to.  In  August  and  September 
a  considerable  number  of  harvest  hands  were  added  for  harvest 
and  threshing.  Little  thought  was  given  by  this  operator  to 
the  practicability  of  spreading  his  work  more  uniformly  through 
the  year  by  different  cropping  and  stock  feeding  policy. 

Many  communities  haven't  a  single  farm  on  which  all  three 
types  of  farm  help  will  be  found.  But  every  prosperous  farm- 
ing community  contains  farms  which  utilize  one  or  more  of 
the  types  on  different  farms.  Farmers  whose  choice  of  crops 
and  methods  of  management  spread  their  work  rather  evenly 
through  the  year  keep  steady  hands;  those  who  diversify 
their  field  crops  and  put  in  a  considerable  acreage  of  corn, 
potatoes,  sugar  beet,  truck,  or  other  crops  requiring  cultivation, 


FARM   LABOR 


283 


need  season  hands;    while  those  who  grow  hay,  small  grains, 
and  fruits  are  apt  to  need  short-time  help. 

But  crop  diversification  and  careful  planning  can  materially 
reduce  the  demand  for  seasonal  help  and  increase  the  demand 


Chart  VII.  —  Single  Crop  Labor  Demand,  Highly  Seasonal. 


Jan. 

Feb. 

Mar. 

Apr. 

May 

June 

July 

Aug. 

Sept. 

Oct. 

Nov. 

Dec. 

CROPS 

KIND 

^ 

Cotton 
Corn 

115 

4 
4 

\ 

\ 

Garden 
Total 

1 

Live- 
stock 

No. 

:.,- 

.p. 

+- , 

Mules 
Co*s 
Hogs 
Hens 

4 
2 
2 
35 

I 

—•■ 

1 

1 

_ 

I 

■ 

■  1 

1  n  n  y  1 

1 H  nnuB  1 

MAN  HOURS  PER  MONTH 

farmer's 

182 

164 

169 

247 

481      424 

190      130     1560 

1560 

702 

182 

$1950.0 

0 

for  steady  help.  We  realize,  of  course,  that  absolute  uniformity 
of  labor  needs  throughout  the  year  cannot  be  attained.  Cotton 
and  fruit  picking,  the  small  grain  harvest,  and  similar  agri- 
cultural concentrations  of  work  are  certain  to  produce  rush- 
periods  in  various  sections  of  the  country  which  will  compel  the 
employment  of  extra  help. 


284 


THE   LABOR   MARKET 


A  Texas  farmer  working  123  acres  of  land  put  115  acres  into 
cotton,  four  into  corn,  and  four  into  sorghum.  (See  Chart  VII.) 
During  January,  February,  and  March  his  farm  required  him  to 
work  about  seven  hours  a  day.     In  April,  he  worked  nine  hours. 


Chart  VIII.  —  Diversified  Farm, 
Demand. 


Slight  Seasonal  Labor 


Jan. 

Feb. 

Mar. 

Apr. 

May 

June 

July 

Aug. 

Sept. 

Oct. 

Nov. 

Dec. 

CROPS      1 

KIND 

t 

25 
20 
15 

Cotton      30 

Corn         45 

Oats          25 

Wheat       24 

Sorghum    ,  r 

(silage)  '  •" 

Sorghum   ,„ 

(for  hay)'" 
Millet         1I/ 

(for  hay)  '^ 

Garden       ]^ 

Total_[l503/4 

- 

" 

_ 

1 

- 

- 

Live- 
stock 

No. 

10 

5 

Horses 

Dairy 
Cows 
Hogs 

Hens 

5 

20 
8 

150 

MAN  HOURS  PER  MONTH 

Farmer's 
Earnings: 

416 

416 

416 

416 

572 

572 

520 

520 

624 

624 

468 

416 

$3250.00 

In  May  and  June  he  hired  one  man  but  did  not  give  him  steady 
work.  In  July  and  August  he  let  his  man  go  and  only  worked 
half  time  himself.  In  September  and  October  he  hired  five  extra 
hands  and  three  during  the  early  part  of  November  and  sent 
his  family  into  the  fields.  In  December  he  was  alone  again. 
During  seven  months  of  the  year  he  did  not  have  enough  work 


FARM  LABOR  285 

to  keep  himself  busy.  For  two  months  he  hired  one  man  but 
could  not  give  him  full  time  work.  For  two  and  a  half  months  he 
needed  several  extra  men  to  help  pick  his  crop.  On  another  farm, 
with  150  acres,  the  farmer  raised  thirty  acres  of  cotton,  forty- 
five  acres  of  corn,  twenty-five  acres  of  oats,  twenty-four  acres 
of  wheat,  twenty-five  acres  of  sorghum,  and  i^  acres  of  millet 
and  garden.  (See  Chart  VIII.)  He  hired  one  man  by  the  year, 
and  his  boys  helped  when  not  in  school.  He  did  not  hire  any 
short-time  help.  The  first  farmer  kept  two  cows,  two  hogs,  and 
four  mules ;  the  second,  twenty  cows,  eight  hogs,  and  five  horses. 
The  first  farmer's  earnings  for  the  year  were  $1950 ;  the  second, 
$3250.  The  observer  comments  on  the  two  cases  as  foUows: 
The  first 

"  kept  his  children  out  of  school  to  pick  cotton  and  sent  his  wife  into 
the  cotton  field.  An  undesirable  class  of  itinerant  labor  was  brought 
into  the  neighborhood  which  became  a  burden  to  the  rest  of  the  com- 
munity when  the  picking  season  was  over  ...  He  is  gradually  rob- 
bing the  soil."  The  second  "brought  desirable  labor  into  the 
neighborhood,  needed  no  additional  labor,  kept  his  men  and  equip- 
ment busy,  and  improved  his  soil."  ^ 

The  value  of  this  demonstration,  which  is  but  one  of  a  num- 
ber in  the  same  bulletin,  is  not  confined  to  the  cotton  states. 
We  can  substitute  wheat,  flax,  rye,  fruit,  and  other  acreages 
for  the  cotton  acreage  and  find  the  illustration  descriptive  of 
conditions  in  many  other  states  or  parts  of  states.  Concen- 
tration of  demands  within  short  seasons  discourage  workmen 
from  remaining  permanently  in  the  business  and  training  them- 
selves for  it.^ 

Charts  VII  to  IX  illustrate  the  stabilization  of  labor  de- 
mand which  can  be  effected  by  carefully  planned  crop  diversi- 
fication. Charts  VII  and  IX  show  the  highl}-  seasonal  demand 
for  labor  of  a  cotton  farmer ;  Chart  VIII,  the  almost  uniform  labor 

»"Maii  Power  in  Agriculture,"  Bulletin  of  the  Agriculture  and  Mechanical 
College  of  Texas,  College  Station,  Texas,  October,  IQ18. 

2  A  number  of  striking  contrasts  in  the  farm  labor  demands  of  different  t>'pc3 
of  farms  will  be  found  on  pages  g-12  of  "A  Graphic  Sunmiary  of  Seasonal  Work 
on  Farm  Crops,"  Separate  from  Year  Book  of  Department  of  Agriculture,  1917. 
No.  758. 


286 


THE  LABOR  MARKET 


demand  on  a  well-diversified  farm.  Chart  IX  presents  a  small 
farm,  where  hired  labor  is  used  but  little.  Its  interest  is  in 
its  demonstration  that  single  crop  agriculture  on  a  small  scale 
prevents  the  farmer  from  utilizing  his  own  labor  power  effectively, 

Chart  IX.  —  Small  Single  Crop  Farm. 


Jan. 


Feb, 


Mar. 


Apr. 


May 


June 


July 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 


Acres  CuI'd 


CROPS 


Cotton 


.1 


I     II 


I  n  u  0  n  u  y  in 


MAN  HOURS  PER  MONTH 


Farmer's 
Earninns 


39 


39   39 


52   169  145   39 


13 


234  260  130   39 


5200.00 


just  as  single  crop  agriculture  on  a  larger  scale  causes  periods 
of  rush  alternated  by  periods  of  stagnation  in  the  labor  market. 

2.   Local  Variations  in  Types  of  Labor  Demand 

There  are  three  basic  influences  in  agriculture  which  have 
an  important  effect  upon  the  farm  labor  demand.  The  first 
is  found  in  differences  in  temperature  and  rainfall  in  the  different 


FARM  LABOR  287 

sections  of  the  country.  These  control  to  a  large  extent  the  time 
of  the  year  when  each  crop  operation  is  performed  in  the  several 
localities,  and  also  influence  the  kind  of  crops  grown.  Spring 
oats,  for  instance,  are  planted  in  northern  Florida  about  Janu- 
ary 10,  and  the  planting  area  then  moves  gradually  northward. 
The  end  of  March  finds  the  oats  in  the  ground  in  Kentucky 
and  Tennessee,  and  in  another  month  the  seeding  is  under  way 
as  far  north  as  Duluth.  The  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture  says  that  the  movement  "of  spring  operations  and 
events"  northward  proceeds  at  a  rate  of  "approximately  one 
degree  of  latitude  or  400  feet  of  altitude  in  four  days";  and 
that  in  the  fall  the  progress  of  operations  southward  as  the 
northern  states  freeze  up  proceeds  at  about  the  same  rate.' 
This  does  not  mean  that  the  demand  for  labor  in  the  southern 
states  disappears  as  this  wave  of  labor  demand  moves  northward 
each  spring.  Instead,  the  opening  up  of  the  spring  farm  labor 
demand  in  the  south  and  its  gradual  spread  northward  means 
a  steady  widening  and  enlarging  of  the  demand  for  farm  labor 
from  January  to  May. 

The  second  of  these  factors  is  the  topography  of  the  couritry. 
This  determines  to  a  considerable  extent,  in  conjunction  with 
temperature  and  rainfall,  the  size  of  the  farm  and  the  type  of 
agriculture  characteristic  of  each  district.  A  rugged  country, 
in  which  relatively  small  valleys  offer  the  only  opportunity  for 
the  plow  and  the  hills  must  be  turned  over  to  cattle  or  sheep, 
will  generally  develop  small  farms  where  most  of  the  farm  work 
is  done  by  the  family,  and  little  help  is  hired.  The  broad  prairies 
of  the  Dakotas  just  as  naturally  invite  the  tractor,  the  gang 
plow,  and  the  extensive  cultivation  of  small  grains. 

The  third  modifying  factor  is  the  type  of  crops  raised.  This 
is  of  course  a  result  of  climate,  soils,  topography,  market  facili- 
ties, customs  (which  may  have  grown  up  more  or  less  acci- 
dentally), and  other  causes.  But  it  makes  a  great  deal  of  dif- 
ference, when  one  attempts  to  develop  practical  policies  for 
meeting  the  farm  labor  needs  of  any  state  or  locality,  whether 
tobacco,  beet  sugar,  apples,  wheat,  milk,  or  cotton  is  the  most 

»  Bulletin  Number  758,  page  ^. 


288  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

important  crop  in  that  district.  The  type  of  crop  raised  largely 
determines  the  type  and  quality  of  labor  needed.  The  extent 
to  which  farmers  practice  single  crop  as  contrasted  with  diversi- 
fied agriculture  combined  with  the  kind  of  crops  raised,  deter- 
mines the  time  and  the  intensity  of  the  seasonal  demands  for 
help. 

The  United  States,  with  its  variety  of  climate,  altitude,  soil, 
rainfall,  and  population,  naturally  contains  agricultural  dis- 
tricts of  many  radically  different  types.  The  broad  acres  of 
Texas,  where  cotton  and  wheat  are  raised  on  large  farms  with 
much  employment  of  negro  labor,  the  cotton  districts  of  the 
lower  Mississippi  valley,  the  mixed  farming  of  the  upper  At- 
lantic coast  and  the  northeastern  states  as  far  west  as  Michigan 
and  Indiana,  the  rich  corn  fields  of  Illinois  and  Iowa,  the 
small  grain  states  in  the  upper  Mississippi  Valley,  the  wheat, 
rye,  and  grazing  areas  between  the  Dakotas  and  the  mountains, 
the  ranches  of  the  southwest,  and  the  fruit,  vegetable,  and  grain 
farms  of  New  York,  Florida,  or  the  Pacific  coast,  produce  radi- 
cally different  farm  labor  needs  in  the  different  sections  of  the 
country. 

Even  a  cursory  survey  of  our  agriculture  will  make  one  realize 
that  no  farm  labor  policy  will  be  successful  that  attempts  to 
fit  one  method  to  the  whole  United  States.  The  same  policy 
may  be  adapted  to  the  needs  of  a  part  of  New  York  state, 
a  part  of  California,  and  a  part  of  West  Virginia.  But  that 
policy  may  not  fit  the  needs  of  any  entire  state.  A  third  of 
the  whole  agricultural  area  of  the  country  may  present  very 
similar  problems,  but  that  third  is  probably  scattered  through 
a  majority  of  the  states.  This  fact  is  so  important  in  the  de- 
velopment of  our  farm  labor  policies  that  we  will  present,  as 
briefly  as  possible,  a  summary  of  the  agricultural  peculiarities 
of  a  number  of  tjrpical  states  and  the  resultant  variety  of  farm 
labor  demands  in  those  states. 

The  essential  labor  difi&culty  in  the  northeastern  or  manu- 
facturing section  of  the  country  is  the  holding  of  farm  labor. 
Here  the  lure  of  the  city  is  particularly  strong.  Pennsylvania 
exhibits  the  situation  in  a  nutsheU. 


FARM  LABOR  289 

The  western  and  northern  sections  of  the  state  are  a  hilly 
country  in  which  small  farms  are  worked  by  family  units  with 
but  Uttle  hired  help,  although  there  are  some  large  dairy  farms 
producing  milk  for  New  York  and  Philadelphia  which  hire 
help  by  the  year.  In  the  central  or  mountain  section,  where 
only  the  valleys  are  of  agricultural  value,  the  farmers  not  only 
depend  almost  entirely  upon  their  own  families  for  farm  labor 
but  supplement  their  farm  income  by  other  occupations.  In 
the  southeastern  section,  a  better  agriculture  obtains.  Here 
potatoes,  tobacco,  oats,  hay,  beef,  and  milk  are  produced  for 
market.  The  farms  average  about  eighty  acres  and  depend 
upon  the  farmer's  family  as  the  chief  source  of  labor.  In  and 
around  Lancaster  county  many  farms  hire  one  or  two  men 
throughout  the  year,  many  of  whom  are  married  men,  for  whom 
tenant  houses  are  provided.  The  tobacco  farmers  in  tliis 
county  avoid  dependence  upon  seasonal  labor  by  feeding  steers 
during  the  winter  months,  which  fits  very  nicely  into  the  work 
of  stripping  tobacco,  and  enables  them  to  get  along  with  such 
seasonal  labor  as  the  small  towns  can  provide. 

The  Lake  Erie  truck  and  fruit  region,  with  its  cultivating, 
picking,  packing,  and  shipping,  is  the  only  part  of  the  state 
where  farms  require  much  crop-season  help,  and  this  is  ordi- 
narily obtained  in  the  neighboring  cities.  In  Pennsylvania 
family  labor  is  the  main  dependence  and  the  use  of  seasonal 
labor  is  very  restricted. 

The  warmer  and  more  level  state  of  Indiana  requires  more 
hired  help  than  Pennsylvania.  But  marked  differences  in 
the  farm  labor  situation  are  found  in  different  sections  of  the 
state. 

Southern  Indiana  is  rolling,  with  spots  of  rich  bottom  land, 
but  is  principally  useful  for  grazing  and  fruit  growing.  Its 
wheat,  rye,  and  other  crops  give  but  small  yields  and  "  there  is 
a  surplus  of  farm  labor  in  the  greater  part  of  this  section.  Many 
men  leave  every  spring  for  the  farms  of  the  north  and  west." 
The  principal  exception  is  found  in  the  extreme  southwestern 
corner,  where  large  acreages  of  wheat,  rye,  and  corn  call  for 
considerable  harvest  labor. 


290  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

A  belt  extending  east  and  west  through  the  central  part  of 
the  state  is  the  important  agricultural  area  of  the  state.  The 
western  third  of  this  consists  of  a  prairie  region  where  com  and 
oats  are  raised  on  large  farms,  and  there  is  a  strong  demand  for 
year-round  and  crop  season  labor,  with  a  slight  extra  demand 
for  harvest  hands.  The  eastern  two  thirds  of  the  area  has 
smaller  farms  and  raises  a  larger  variety  of  crops,  and  its  work 
is  spread  more  uniformly  through  the  year,  with  the  demand 
almost  entirely  for  steady  help.  Each  locality  produces  its 
own  day  labor  and  but  little  unskilled  labor  is  needed.  In  the 
northwestern  corner  of  the  state,  north  of  the  Kankakee  River, 
is  a  truck  and  dairy  section,  where  the  highest  farm  wages  in 
the  state  are  paid  to  good  dairymen  and  experienced  truck 
gardeners. 

The  demand  for  farm  labor  in  Tennessee  is  predominantly 
for  year-round  and  crop  season  help.  In  eastern  Tennessee 
with  its  diversified  farming  and  a  limited  amount  of  dairying 
near  the  larger  towns  and  cities,  the  demand  is  principally  for 
season  help  to  work  from  March  i  through  August,  but  with 
some  demand  for  hay  and  harvest  hands.  But  this  short-time 
help  is  largely  furnished  by  the  neighbor's  boy  or  the  laborer 
Hving  in  the  neighboring  town  rather  than  by  the  transient. 
Just  to  the  west,  on  the  Cumberland  plateau  and  Highland 
Run,  where  the  soil  is  light  and  sandy,  there  is  practically  no 
demand  for  outside  labor.  The  farmer's  family  and  the  neigh- 
bor's boy  are  able  to  do  the  farm  work  during  the  summer,  and 
many  of  the  farmers  and  farm  hands  work  in  the  coal  mines 
or  lumbering  canxps  during  the  winter. 

The  central  basin,  rich  in  phosphate,  fertile,  and  a  natural 
blue  grass  section,  presents  an  entirely  different  situation.  It 
is  a  prosperous  farming  area.  Most  of  the  farms  range  from 
one  hundred  sixty  to  four  hundred  acres.  Corn  is  grown  on  a 
large  scale,  and  beef  cattle,  hogs,  mules,  and  sheep  are  raised 
in  large  numbers.  Milk  production  for  creameries  is  common. 
Here  there  is  a  steady  demand  for  year-round,  reliable  farm 
help,  combined  with  a  heavy  spring  demand  for  extra  help 
for  planting  and  cultivating,  and  a  still  heavier  demand  for 


FARM  LABOR  291 

haying  and  harvest  hands  in  June  and  July.  A  considerable 
number  of  transients  are  hired  during  this  harvest  season. 
Wages  average  a  little  higher  than  in  the  poorer  district  to  the 
east.  The  same  situation  obtains  in  the  blue  grass  region  of 
Kentucky,  and  in  the  counties  southwest  of  it,  but  more  labor 
is  required  there  for  tobacco  cutting. 

West  of  the  Tennessee  River,  the  character  of  the  agriculture 
again  changes.  Cotton  is  the  leading  crop,  with  com  second 
in  importance.  Negro  men  and  women  furnish  most  of  the 
field  hands,  and  negro  share  croppers  cultivate  a  good  deal  of 
the  land.  The  extra  help  needed  in  cotton-picking  time  is 
furnished  by  the  negroes  from  the  towns. 

In  northwestern  Tennessee,  and  the  Mississippi  delta,  which 
is  very  rich  land,  is  found  a  cotton-growing  district  of  a  more  pro- 
gressive and  prosperous  type.  Corn  rather  than  cotton  pre- 
dominates. Hogs  are  produced  in  large  numbers.  Corn, 
cotton,  and  wheat  raising  are  carried  on  along  with  the  live-stock 
business.  Many  farmers  need  help  the  year  round  —  respons- 
ible, skilled  help  —  and  offer  wages  better  than  those  in  the 
cotton  and  corn  district  just  to  the  east,  while  a  considerable 
amount  of  short-time  help  is  eniployed  for  planting  and  har- 
vesting. 

The  essential  contrast  between  the  farming  of  Tennessee  and 
Kentucky  is  found  in  the  importance  of  cotton  in  Tennessee 
and  of  tobacco  in  Kentucky.  Cotton  is  the  crop  which  tempts 
Tennessee  farmers  toward  single  crop  agriculture;  tobacco 
the  crop  which  tempts  Kentuckians.  But  the  tobacco  farmers 
on  the  whole  have  been  more  inclined  to  raise  corn  and  Uve- 
stock,  and  thus  develop  a  less  acute  seasonal  demand  for  labor. 

The  grain  states  of  the  northern  Mississippi  Valley  have  been 
particularly  dependent  upon  seasonal  labor.  Their  impor- 
tance as  producers  of  staple  food  products  makes  their  farm 
labor  situation  particularly  important. 

The  agriculture  centers  around  two  crops,  corn  and  wheat. 
In  Illinois  and  Iowa  we  find  typical  corn  agriculture ;  in  western 
Minnesota  and  the  Dakotas,  typical  wheat  agriculture.  The 
writer  does  not  mean  to  imply  that  these  are  the  only  crops 


292  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

raised.  But  they  are  the  crops  which  stand  first  in  the  farmer's 
mind.  They  determine  his  selection  of  other  crops  and  have  a 
controUing  eflect  on  his  farming  policy. 

Kansas  furnishes  a  good  illustration  of  both  types.  In 
eastern  Kansas,  where  corn  is  the  leading  crop,  and  the 
typical  farm  is  from  eighty  to  one  hundred  and  sixty  acres, 
we  have  a  typical  diversified  farming  district  such  as  is  common 
in  the  central  west.  There  is  a  steady  demand  for  year-round 
help,  and  many  farmers  provide  a  house  for  the  family  in  order 
to  get  steady  help.  There  is  likewise  the  strong  demand  for 
crop  season  help  which  is  typical  of  such  farming  districts  in 
Illinois,  Iowa,  Wisconsin,  eastern  Minnesota,  and  similar 
states. 

West  of  this  corn  belt  is  the  Kansas  wheat  area.  Here  the 
farms  are  larger,  running  from  one  hundred  sixty  to  six  hundred 
forty  acres;  the  farming  is  not  so  diversified,  and  dairying 
exists  to  but  a  very  limited  extent. 

"The  demand  for  farm  labor  in  this  district  is  almost  entirely  for 
harvesting  and  threshing,  but  a  light  demand  for  plowing,  sowing 
wheat,  and  putting  the  sorghums  in  the  silo  exists.  The  demand  here 
is  nearly  altogether  for  single  men.  Not  needing  help  the  year  round, 
the  farmers  do  not  provide  houses  for  their  families." 

In  western  Minnesota,  North  Dakota,  and  Montana,  the  spring 
demand  is  quite  active  but  followed  by  a  lull  in  June  and  then  an 
increasingly  vigorous  demand  in  July,  August,  and  September. 

Still  farther  west,  and  extending  to  the  Colorado  line,  is 
the  grazing  section  of  Kansas.  In  the  northern  part  of  this 
area  some  wheat  and  sorghums  are  raised,  but  much  larger 
quantities  in  the  southern  part. 

"  Crops  are  rather  uncertain  in  this  district,  consequently  the  farm 
labor  demand  is  not  at  all  regular.  Some  years  there  is  a  heavy 
demand  for  harvest  and  threshing  help  for  about  sixty  days ;  in  other 
years,  when  wheat  does  not  develop,  there  is  no  demand  to  be  reckoned 
with  during  the  entire  year." 

South  Dakota  is  a  typical  small-grain  state.  Like  Kansas, 
it  contains  agricultural  areas  which  are  very  dissimilar.     It  is 


FARM   LABOR 


293 


divided  into  two  nearly  equal  sections  by  the  Missouri  River, 
which  runs  from  the  north  down  across  the  center  of  the  state. 
The  district  east  of  the  river  has  a  much  better  rainfall  than  the 
western  part  of  the  state.  The  northern  part  of  the  eastern 
half  of  the  state  is  largely  devoted  to  small-grain  farming, 
although  there  is  considerable  dairying  and  some  grazing  of 
unfarmed  land.  The  central  third  of  this  east  section  is  not 
so  well  settled.  It  has  more  pasture  and  less  com  than  the 
northern  section.  All  of  the  farmers  keep  live-stock  and  there 
is  considerable  dairying.  The  southeastern  part  of  this  area 
raises  more  potatoes  than  any  other  part  of  the  state.  The 
farms  in  the  southern  third  of  the  east  half  average  about  two 
hundred  forty  acres  each  and  corn  is  the  principal  crop.  Some 
small  grain  is  raised  on  each  farm,  and  there  is  considerable 
feeding  of  cattle  and  hogs. 

The  farm  labor  demands  of  these  three  areas  are  consid- 
erably different.  In  the  southern  third  of  the  east  half  of 
the  state,  the  majority  of  the  farmers  want  one  or  two  hired  men 
for  the  crop  season  and  from  one  to  four  extra  hands  for  the 
small-grain  harvest  and  in  com  husking.  Relatively  few  keep 
a  man  steadily  through  the  year.  The  central  third  hires 
more  crop  season  hands  and  also  more  harvesters  than  the 
southern.  Both  potato  pickers  and  corn  buskers  are  needed 
in  this  area  in  the  fall.  The  northern  third  needs  the  largest 
number  of  grain  harvesters.  In  normal  seasons  this  east  half 
of  the  state  uses  seven  or  eight  thousand  harvest  and  threshing 
hands,  and  some  four  thousand  for  corn  husking. 

The  other  half  of  the  state,  west  of  the  Missouri  River,  is 
dryer  and  more  devoted  to  stock  and  alfalfa,  except  in  the 
extreme  southeastern  corner  of  the  area,  which  does  not  differ 
from  the  east  side  of  the  river,  except  that  it  is  less  developed. 
North  and  east  of  the  Black  Hills  are  some  irrigated  districts 
where  intensive  farming  is  practiced.  Alfalfa  is  steadily 
increasing  in  favor  in  the  western  part  of  the  state,  and  several 
hundred  extra  men  are  hired  each  year  for  alfalfa  haying. 
This  need  will  probably  increase  in  future  years.  There  is 
little  demand  in  this  half  of  the  state  for  grain  harvest  hands, 


294  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

and  but  a  limited  demand  for  crop  season  help.  Many  of  the 
stock  raisers  keep  steady  help  throughout  the  year. 

Minnesota  is  an  interesting  state,  both  from  an  agricultural 
and  from  a  farm  labor  point  of  view.  It  is  a  sort  of  border  state 
for  several  dififerent  types  of  agriculture.  Along  its  southern 
and  eastern  boundary  lines  the  moderate-sized  farms  and  dairy 
interests  of  western  Wisconsin  are  duplicated  in  a  diversified 
farming  district,  largely  peopled  by  Germans  and  Scandina- 
vians, in  which  some  of  the  finest  Holstein  and  Jersey  cattle 
in  the  middle  west  form  the  basis  of  an  important  dairy  industry. 
The  two  tiers  of  counties  running  across  the  southern  end  of 
the  state  might  be  mistaken  for  Iowa. 

The  southwestern  and  west  central  section,  largely  Scandi- 
navian in  population,  with  its  relatively  large  farms,  many  of 
which  have  over  400  acres  of  rich  rolling  land,  resembles  the 
best  parts  of  South  Dakota.  Here  small  grains  are  raised  on 
a  large  scale,  beef  cattle  and  hogs  are  fattened  in  considerable 
numbers,  and  dairying  is  less  important.  As  one  travels  north 
along  that  western  border  of  Minnesota  he  reaches  the  Red 
River  Valley,  one  of  the  famous  small-grain  areas,  and  finds 
farming  that  is  almost  identical  in  type  with  the  wheat,  rye, 
barley,  and  flax  raising  of  North  Dakota. 

Northeastern  Minnesota,  on  the  other  hand,  is  still  but  a 
partially  developed,  cut-over  country.  The  farmers  are  still 
grubbing  out  stumps,  and  many  of  them  have  to  "piece  out" 
their  farm  earnings  with  wages  earned  in  the  harvest  fields  to 
the  west,  or  in  the  lumber  woods. 

Minnesota's  farm  labor  problems  are  of  course  as  varied  and 
complex  as  her  agricultural  activities.  In  the  southeastern 
part  of  the  state  the  strong  demand  is  for  crop  season  help. 
Some  of  the  dairy  farms  keep  a  man  the  year  round.  There 
is  also  a  call  for  short-time  help  in  the  haying  and  harvest  sea- 
sons. But  the  important  demand  is  for  crop  season  help. 
The  same  situation  is  quite  typical  of  the  counties  stretching 
across  the  southern  part  of  the  state.  In  the  southwestern 
and  central  sections  there  is  a  steady  demand  for  year  round 
help  and  an  intense  demand  for  crop  season  help,  especially 


FARM  LABOR  295 

during  corn  cultivation.  There  is  also  a  very  heavy  demand 
for  short  season  help  during  spring  and  fall  plowing  and  during 
the  small  grain  harvest.  The  Red  River  Valley,  like  all  wheat 
areas,  requires  large  numbers  of  transient  harvest  hands,  with 
a  considerable  number  of  crop  season  workers,  but  offers  very 
little  employment  during  the  winter  months. 

Montana's  labor  demand  is  predominantly  for  seasonal  help. 
In  the  irrigated  areas  in  southern  Montana  are  many  farms 
which  raise  hay,  grain,  milk  and  beef  cattle,  hogs  and  sheep. 
This  diversified  farming  calls  for  year-round  help,  and  each  year 
Montana  farmers  are  found  seeking  such  help  in  the  Minneapolis 
and  other  middle  west  employment  ofl5ces,  although  much  of 
it  is,  of  course,  obtained  locally. 

Sugar  beets,  which  are  another  important  crop  in  this  section, 
of  course  call  for  summer  season  help.  This  labor  is  furnished 
by  families  of  foreigners  sent  in  by  the  beet  sugar  companies 
as  in  most  of  the  other  northern  states. 

In  the  intermountain  valleys,  grain  and  hay  are  the  chief 
crops  in  the  lower  levels,  and  hay  and  range  cattle  on  the  higher 
lands.  There  is  a  steady  demand  for  year  help,  but  the  main 
feature  of  the  labor  requirement  is  found  in  the  very  large  num- 
ber of  men  that  are  needed  early  in  July  and  from  then  on  for 
a  period  of  about  six  weeks  to  take  care  of  the  hay  harvest. 

But  Montana's  most  important  farm  labor  demand  is  found 
in  the  non-irrigated  areas  of  eastern  Montana.  The  rainfall 
of  this  section  is  from  eleven  to  sixteen  inches.  It  is  a  dry  farm- 
ing grain  area.  Wheat  is  the  principal  crop  and  rye,  flax,  oats, 
and  barley  important  supplementary  crops.  Corn  is  being 
grown  with  increasing  success  in  the  southern  part  of  this  area, 
while  large  cattle  ranches  are  scattered  through  it  wherever 
range  land  is  available.  The  cattle  ranches  employ  their  help 
by  the  year,  but  the  grain  farm  demand  consists,  as  in  other 
grain  states,  of  two  seasonal  demands.  A  considerable  number 
of  men  are  needed  in  the  spring  to  get  in  the  crops  and  for  sum- 
mer fallowing ;  but  the  big  demand  comes  late  in  July  when 
harvesting  begins,  and  continues  until  threshing  is  completed 
in  early  October.     This  demand  is  met  by  the  large  numbers 


296  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

of  transient  harvest  hands  "  who  drift  into  the  state  both  from 
the  east  and  from  the  west  at  about  the  time  they  are  needed." 

The  similarities  and  differences  between  the  wheat  and  the 
cotton  states  are  both  interesting.  In  the  wheat  states  of 
the  northwest  tens  of  thousands  of  white,  transient  laborers 
are  employed  during  the  harvest.  In  the  typical  cotton  states 
the  dependence  is  upon  masses  of  negro  laborers  living  in  neigh- 
boring counties  or  states.  In  Texas  we  find  both  the  wheat 
farming  of  the  northwest  and  the  cotton  farming  of  the  south, 
with  the  negro  the  chief  source  of  transient,  seasonal  labor. 
He  comes  from  the  cities  and  from  southern  Texas  for  cotton 
picking,  from  September  15  to  August  i.  A  large  part  of 
the  farms  in  the  cotton  and  wheat  districts  put  most  of  their 
acreage  into  the  single  crop  with  resultant  congestion  of  the 
labor  demand  into  a  few  weeks  of  the  year. 

The  prairie  section  of  eastern  Mississippi  is  worked  by  renters, 
rather  than  hired  help,  except  on  some  of  the  larger  stock  farms. 
The  truck  and  fruit  farms  are  principally  worked  by  their  own- 
ers and  get  what  extra,  short-time  help  they  need  locally.  It 
is  only  in  the  delta  section,  with  its  demand  for  a  large  number  of 
cotton  pickers  in  September,  October,  and  November,  that 
there  is  any  sharp  seasonal  demand  for  labor. 

The  farm  labor  problem  of  Mississippi,  like  other  lower 
Mississippi  River  states,  has  really  been  one  of  labor  surplus 
rather  than  of  labor  shortage.  Dependence  upon  a  plentiful 
supply  of  negroes  has  caused  a  large  number  of  the  whites  to 
live  in  idleness,  and  has  produced  slack  farming.  A  correspond- 
ent in  Mississippi  wrote  us  during  the  war :  "  Millions  of  acres 
of  farm  lands  are  lying  out  in  this  state  for  lack  of  labor,  and  are 
better  off  lying  out  than  to  be  cultivated  like  they  have  been." 

Our  survey  would  be  unsatisfactory  without  a  glance  at 
conditions  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

The  state  of  Washington  presents  five  distinct  farm  labor 
situations.  East  and  south  of  the  Columbia  River  is  a  small- 
grain  area.  The  rainfall  ranges  from  fifteen  to  twenty-five 
inches  per  annum  in  the  eastern  portion  of  this  wheat  belt  to 
fifteen  inches  in  the  central  and  northwestern  part,  and  five 


FARM  LABOR  297 

or  six  inches  in  the  southwestern  part.  This  variation  in  mois- 
ture is  a  determining  factor  that  profoundly  influences  the  labor 
demand.  In  the  eastern  portion  of  the  grain  belt,  where  mois- 
ture is  most  plentiful,  wheat  and  rye  are  the  most  important 
crops,  but  more  oats,  barley,  corn,  alfalfa,  clover,  and  peas  are 
being  grown,  and  this  diversification  "is  resulting  in  better 
distribution  of  labor,  more  family  sized  farms  and  less  necessity 
for  the  introduction  of  transient  labor  during  harvest."  ^  Very 
little  transient  labor  is  employed  except  for  the  threshing  crews 
which  thresh  on  contract  from  the  shock.  In  the  western  half 
of  the  small-grain  area,  where  the  rainfall  ranges  from  five 
to  fifteen  inches,  "wheat  and  rye  are  grown  almost  exclusively 
in  the  cultivated  parts  of  the  area."  The  demand  for  labor 
is  therefore  subject  to  sharp  seasonal  fluctuations  characteristic 
of  small-grain  areas.  A  limited  number  of  men  are  needed  in 
the  autumn  and  early  spring  for  plowing,  dragging,  and  seeding, 
and  a  large  number  in  the  harvest  threshing  season.  The  same 
conditions  obtain  in  the  wheat  areas  in  Benton  and  Klickitat 
counties. 

North  of  the  Columbia  River  and  east  of  the  Cascade  Moun- 
tains is  a  rough  area  in  which  the  tillable  land  is  scattered  and 
the  farms  relatively  small.  General  farming  and  stock  raising 
is  practiced,  and  there  is  that  more  equable  distribution  of  labor 
needs  throughout  the  year  which  is  characteristic  of  this  type 
of  farming.  Hired  labor  in  this  district  consists  largely  of  "  the 
neighbor's  boy"  who  is  working  by  the  month  or  day  until  he 
saves  enough  to  get  a  start  for  himself.  The  same  relative  local 
balance  of  labor  demand  and  supply  is  found  in  many  parts 
of  the  Yakima  and  Wenatchee  valleys,  especially  the  Yakima, 
in  which  alfalfa,  corn,  potatoes,  and  dairying  are  the  developing 
agricultural  industries.  In  the  dairy  district  in  western  Wash- 
ington, where  farming  is  limited  almost  entirely  to  the  produc- 
tion of  forage  for  the  herds,  there  is  very  little  seasonal  demand 
for  labor.  The  dairy  farms  need  specialists  to  milk  the  cows 
and  care  for  the  milk  and  dairy  work,  and  field  hands  to  do  the 

'  Quotations  are  from  letter  of  November  21,  191S,  from  George  Severance,  Vice 
Dean  College  of  Agriculture,  Sti.te  College  of  Washington. 


298  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

regular  farm  work.  But  in  both  cases  the  work  is  steady  and 
produces  a  demand  for  steady  rather  than  short-time  help. 
Some  extra  hands  are  needed  during  the  crop  season,  but  very 
few  harvest  hands. 

The  fruit  and  beet  sugar  districts,  however,  produce  labor 
demands  that  are  more  similar  to  those  of  the  wheat  area  east 
of  the  Columbia.  The  irrigated  fruit  farms  in  the  Yakima 
and  Wenatchee  valleys  often  experience  another  shortage 
of  labor  during  apple-picking  time,  which  was  relieved  some- 
what during  the  war  period  by  certain  high  schools  beginning 
early  and  then  closing  during  apple  picking.  The  demand  in 
this  case,  as  in  the  small-grain  harvest,  is  a  short-time  demand 
for  large  numbers  of  extra  workers  who  do  not  have  to 
have  any  special  farming  skill.  In  other  words,  it  is  a  large, 
short-time  demand  for  common  labor.  In  the  case  of  apple 
picking,  the  work  permits  the  employment  of  youths  and  women, 
as  well  as  men. 

The  beet  sugar  fields,  whose  area  in  the  Yakima  valley  is 
rapidly  increasing,  call  for  a  large  amount  of  extra  labor  for  a 
longer  period.  From  the  time  that  the  beets  come  up,  a  great 
deal  of  hand  labor  is  needed  for  weeding,  thinning,  and  harvest- 
ing. The  work  can  be  performed  by  women  and  children  and 
in  many  beet  sugar  districts  is  done  by  families  of  foreigners 
moved  to  the  beet  fields  by  the  sugar  companies  and  housed 
in  shacks,  tents,  or  barns.  In  the  young  beet  sugar  industry 
of  Washington,  the  Japanese  have  been  the  principal  source 
for  this  special  type  of  seasonal  farm  work.  When  the  beet 
harvest  is  over,  the  beet  workers  return  to  the  cities  or  enter 
other  industries. 

The  farm  labor  situation  in  California  in  191 8  receives  illu- 
minating discussion  in  a  bulletin  of  the  California  College 
of  Agriculture :  ^ 

"California  agriculture  is  highly  specialized,  each  farmer  usually 
confining  himself  to  some  one  crop  or  product,  as  dairying,  frmt, 
sugar  beets,  poultry,  grain,  or  hay,  and  he,  therefore,  requires  a  type 

»  Circular  No.  193,  "A  Study  of  Farm  Labor  in  California,"  by  R.  L.  Adams 
and  T.  R.  Kelley,  pp.  5-6. 


FARM  LABOR  299 

of  labor  able  to  do  the  particvilar  kind  of  work  necessary  to  successful 
production  in  his  particular  industry. 

"A  dairyman  wants  men  all  the  year  who  are  able  and  willing  to  be 
on  hand  twice  a  day  at  twelve  hour  intervals,  mUk  twenty  to  thirty 
cows,  and  possibly  clean  out  the  milking  sheds,  and  feed  in  the  barns. 
An  alfalfa  hay  producer  wants  husky  men  from  about  April  15  to 
November  i  who  can  handle  teams  in  mowing  and  raking,  lend  a  hand 
at  cocking,  hauling,  and  stacking,  and  irrigate  between  cuttings.  A 
grain  grower  requires  men  for  a  more  or  less  definite  period  during  the 
fall  and  rainy  season  to  care  for  and  drive  eight  or  ten  head  of  mules 
in  plowing  and  harrowing.  He  then  has  an  interval  with  no  work 
until  the  hay  or  grain  harvest  starts  —  the  last  of  May  or  the  first 
of  June.  If  harvesting  is  done  by  contract  the  grower's  interest  in 
labor  ceases  with  the  hauling  off  of  the  crop  and  its  safe  dehvery  to 
car  or  warehouse.  The  fruit  grower  needs  additional  help  for  any 
work  he  cannot  do  himself.  On  small  acreages  this  means  extra 
help  only  at  harvest  —  to  gather  the  fruit  and  prepare  it  for  sale  or 
for  drying.  The  man  operating  extensive  acreage  of  fruit  does  little 
more  than  supervise  the  work,  and  in  addition  to  harvest  hands  needs 
men  to  prune,  spray,  cultivate,  and  irrigate.  Even  among  the  fruit 
men  a  difference  exists  in  the  kinds  of  labor  which  can  be  used.  For 
picking  up  prunes  or  walnuts  any  labor  can  be  utilized  and  so  school 
children,  Indians,  and  whole  families  of  unskilled  and  inexperienced 
people  are  found  to  be  satisfactory.  For  picking  pears,  or  apples, 
or  peaches,  to  be  prepared  for  shipment,  only  experienced,  skUled 
help  is  profitable.  Spraying  can  be  done  with  any  good  worker,  but 
pruning  demands  men  who  understand  the  principles  involved. 
Irrigating  demands  men  who  know  how  to  apply  water  properly ;  it 
cannot  be  done  to  advantage  by  inexperienced  hands.  The  poultry 
man  wants  help  that  understands  poultry  feeding,  sanitation,  breed- 
ing, and  preparation  of  poultry  products  for  marketing.  This  work 
consists  of  much  detail  and  requires  a  man  who  not  only  can  do  the 
work  but  is  quiet  and  gentle  with  the  fowls.  The  sugar  beet  growers 
require  men  able  to  do  the  hard,  monotonous,  back-breaking  work  of 
thinning  the  growing  plants,  and  pulling  and  topping  the  mature 
crop  to  prepare  it  for  shipment. 

"All  this  shows  what  a  great  variety  of  men  is  needed  upon  o>ur 
ranches.  California  agriculture  as  it  stands  to-day  represents  the 
cosmopolitan  effort  of  representatives  of  many  nations,  so  many  in 
fact  that  to  list  them  would  include  almost  all  that  have  experienced 


300  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

much  emigration  —  China,  France,  Germany,  India,  Italy,  Japan, 
Mexico,  Portugal,  Russia,  Sweden,  and  on  around  the  globe." 

The  authors  distinguished  three  distinct  types  of  labor 
needed:^ 

"First  —  Experienced  unskilled  men  needed  for  the  hard,  tedious 
back-breaking  work  which  Americans  cannot  generally  be  obtained 
to  do  under  prevailing  wages  and  other  conditions;  e.g.,  asparagus 
cutting,  onion  work,  sugar  beet  thinning  and  topping,  hoeing  beans, 
digging  potatoes,  and  cotton  and  cantaloupe  picking.  Japanese, 
Mexicans,  Filipinos,  Porto  Ricans,  Chinese,  and  Hindus  are  mostly 
used  with  varying  degrees  of  success  for  these  operations. 

"Second  —  Experienced  skilled  men  able  to  do  ranch  work  without 
special  direction,  such  as  milking,  handling  teams,  running  machinery 
{i.e.,  mowers,  binders,  harvesters,  tractors,  engines)  range  riding, 
heavy  work  like  bucking  sacks  and  stacking  hay,  and  special  work  as 
pruning  and  spraying  trees,  building  fences,  and  picking  certain  fruits 
requiring  judgment. 

"Third  —  Unskilled  inexperienced  people  suited  to  some  of  the 
more  simple  operations  such  as  picking  up  prunes  and  walnuts,  hoeing 
weeds,  cultivating  growing  crops,  and  picking  certain  fruits  requiring 
little  or  no  judgment." 

The  California  farm  labor  demand  is  characterized  by  an 
unusual  variety  of  short  seasonal  needs.  The  grain  fields  of 
central  California  need  men  for  the  planting  in  December  and 
January  and  the  harvest  between  June  15  and  August  15. 
The  sugar  beets  of  southern  California  have  to  be  thinned  in 
February  and  March  and  then  harvested  in  August  and  Septem- 
ber, During  the  intervening  months  the  sugar  beet  workers 
must  find  other  employment.  The  beet  seasons  of  northern 
California  are  about  a  month  later.  Asparagus  cutting  needs 
hands  from  May  15  to  July  i,  the  cantaloupe  harvest  in  May 
and  June,  and  the  deciduous  fruit  crops  in  August  and  Septem- 
ber. Each  one  hundred  acres  of  hops  offers  work  for  from  two 
hundred  to  three  hundred  men  for  three  or  four  weeks.  The 
same  area  of  asparagus  or  sugar  beets  calls  for  twenty  or  thirty 
men  for  sbc  or  eight  weeks ;  of  pear  trees  calls  for  thirty  to  one 

1  Circular  No.  193,  "  A  Study  of  Farm  Labor  in  California,"  by  R.  L.  Adams 
and  T.  R.  Kelley,  p.  6. 


FARM   LABOR  301 

hundred  men  for  about  three  weeks ;  of  cotton  picking  for  ten 
or  fifteen  men  for  three  months ;  of  potatoes,  for  ten  to  thirty- 
five  men  for  a  month  or  two.  The  alfalfa  harvest  of  the  San 
Joaquin  and  Sacramento  valleys  is  one  of  the  longest  seasonal 
demands.     It  offers  work  from  April  through  September. 

This  brief  survey  of  the  farm  labor  demands  of  a  number  of 
typical  states  reveals  two  facts :  (i)  That  the  employment 
agencies  and  agricultural  organizations  interested  in  the  farm- 
er's supply  of  labor  must  study  the  agriculture  of  each  part  of 
each  state  and  adapt  their  policies  to  the  particular  demands 
of  each  locality.  (2)  Diversified  agriculture  is  the  only  kind 
which  offers  a  steady  demand  for  skilled  workers,  and  therefore 
the  only  kind  of  agriculture  which  offers  an  economic  induce- 
ment to  competent  farm  hands. 

The  principal  economic  opportunity  offered  by  American 
agriculture  to  farm  laborers  up  to  this  time  —  and  can  we  over- 
estimate its  importance  ?  —  has  been  the  opportunity  to  acquire 
a  farm.  Hundreds  of  thousands  of  men  have  worked  as  farm 
hands  until  they  have  saved  a  little  money  and  have  then  become 
farm  operators.  This  opportunity  still  exists,  though  it  now 
requires  a  larger  initial  investment.  It  is  probably  true  that 
as  our  country  develops  a  larger  number  of  persons  will  remain 
farm  laborers  and  never  become  owners.  If  we  want  that 
group  to  consist  of  reliable,  self-respecting  men,  we  must  offer 
steady  employment,  wages  that  will  support  a  family,  houses 
for  married  men's  families,  and  opportunities  of  welfare  equal 
to  those  in  our  city  employments.  But  as  we  have  suggested 
at  an  earlier  point  in  this  chapter,  there  is  little  likelihood  that 
any  such  permanent  class  of  reliable  farm  laborers  will  develop 
in  the  immediate  future.  It  will  be  a  slow  development,  keep- 
ing pace  with  the  improvement  in  labor's  opportunities  in 
agriculture. 

3.  The  Employment  Office  and  the  Farmer 

Special  difficulties  confront  the  employment  office  when  it 
seeks  to  fill  orders  for  farm  hands.  The  distance  of  the  farm 
from  the  employment  ofiice  makes  it  difficult  to  get  complete 


302  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

information  about  the  farm  —  the  kind  of  work  to  be  done,  the 
amount  of  chores,  the  hours,  the  housing,  the  food,  the  duration 
of  the  work,  the  probabiHties  of  getting  other  work  in  the  neigh- 
borhood when  this  terminates,  the  man's  washing,  whether  the 
farmer  pays  his  men  promptly,  sometimes  whether  the  man  can 
find  others  of  his  nationality  or  religion  in  that  neighborhood. 
And  yet  the  men  want  answers  to  these  questions  if  they  are  the 
kind  of  men  the  farmer  wants.  One  of  the  questions  most  fre- 
quently asked  of  the  employment  office  by  men  seeking  farm 
work  is  "Do  you  know  this  farmer?"  The  man  who  works 
on  a  farm  must  live  in  the  farmer's  home.  He  must  "marry 
the  farmer"  as  well  as  work  for  him.  Dissatisfaction  with  the 
farm  home  causes  as  much  quitting  among  farm  hands  as  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  work  or  wages.  Personal  dislike  for  the 
man  or  for  his  habits  probably  causes  farmers  to  let  men  go  as 
often  as  their  incompetence  at  the  work. 

Minnesota's  experience  in  her  war-time  farm  labor  office 
demonstrated  that  intelligent  farm  labor  placement  can  be  done 
by  an  employment  office  and  suggests  some  essential  principles 
in  the  management  of  such  work.^  The  Minnesota  office  was 
established  in  Minneapolis  in  June,  191 7,  and  operated  as  a 
state  office  until  absorbed  by  the  United  States  Employment 
Service  in  the  fall  of  1918.  The  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture  put  a  farm  labor  specialist  in  the  state  office  to  assist 
in  the  direction  of  the  work,  and  a  county  labor  director  was  ap- 
pointed in  each  of  the  eighty-six  counties  of  the  state,  to  act  as 
county  representative  of  the  state  office.     In  many  counties  these 

1  The  Minnesota  plan  was  not  much  different  from  that  used  in  a  number  of 
other  states.  Ohio's  plan,  for  example,  was  very  similar.  The  two  plans  were 
worked  out  independently  and  announced  almost  simultaneously,  but  did  not  differ 
in  their  essentials.  The  principal  difference  was  that  Ohio  centered  their  farm  labor 
demands  and  farm  labor  recruiting  in  twenty-two  offices  in  as  many  different  parts 
of  the  state,  while  Minnesota  centralized  the  work  in  one  office,  maintaining  local 
contact  through  county  correspondents.  A  number  of  other  states  had  somewhat 
similar  plans.  The  details  differed,  but  there  seemed  to  be  a  general  agreement  on 
fundamentals.  The  Ohio  plan  is  described  in  the  Monthly  Labor  Review.  April, 
igi8,  p.  53,  in  an  article  on  "Mobihzing  and  Distributing  Farm  Labor  in  Ohio," 
VVm.  M.  Leiserson.  Cf.  also  "Developing  a  Farm  Hand  Business,"  H.  J.  Beckerle, 
Bulletin  192,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  p.  114. 


FARJM   LABOR  303 

consisted  of  the  county  agricultural  agents.  Each  of  these 
county  labor  agents  appointed  his  own  corps  of  local  representa- 
tives. He  chose  as  many  or  as  few  as  he  deemed  advisable  in 
his  own  particular  county.  In  counties  which  were  still  in  a 
"backwoods"  state  of  development  or  where  the  large  number 
of  lakes  made  the  agricultural  area  so  small  that  there  was  no 
farm  labor  shortage  even  during  the  war,  these  county  organiza- 
tions did  very  little.  By  August,  1917,  a  network  of  farm  labor 
agents  had  been  spread  over  the  state.  Four  hundred  and 
eighty-six  carefully  selected  men  were  representing  the  Minne- 
apolis office  in  the  various  counties  and  townships. 

These  men  received  no  salaries.  They  were  selected  partly 
because  of  their  patriotism  and  partly  because  self-interest 
could  be  made  to  take  the  place  of  wages  in  their  particular 
cases.  Self-interest,  coupled  with  an  interest  in  public  affairs, 
would  have  to  be  the  basis  of  their  selection  in  times  of  peace. 
There  were  among  them  bankers,  merchants,  implement  dealers, 
farmers,  school  principals,  a  harness  maker,  a  chief  of  police, 
lawyers,  and  men  of  other  vocations.  In  one  county  a  bank 
cashier  was  the  mainstay  of  the  organization ;  in  another,  an 
implement  dealer ;  in  a  third,  a  lawyer ;  in  a  fourth,  a  chief 
of  police.  Farmers  were  seldom  satisfactory  representatives. 
The  work  was  to  them  a  burden  without  commensurate  benefit. 
But  to  the  others  it  brought  business,  friends,  valuable  good  will. 

These  local  agents  were  supplied  with  blanks  by  the  state 
office  and  given  authority  to  telephone  or  telegraph  collect 
when  sending  in  orders  or  notifications  for  cancellations  of  orders. 
Each  week  during  the  busy  season  they  received  letters  of  in- 
formation with  respect  to  the  condition  of  the  labor  market, 
current  rates  of  wages,  methods  of  recruiting  men  locally, 
and  other  matters  connected  with  the  work,  and  they  were 
circularized  from  time  to  time  for  information  about  the  pros- 
pective demands  for  farm  labor  in  their  localities  during  the 
succeeding  week  or  two. 

Farmers  were  required  to  place  their  orders  with  these  local 
agents.  If  they  sent  their  orders  for  men  directly  to  the  state 
office,  the  orders  were  returned  with  instructions  to  place  them 


304  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

with  the  local  agent.  There  were  two  reasons  for  this  rule: 
it  enabled  the  local  agent  to  fill  as  many  as  possible  of  the  jobs 
with  local  men,  and  it  gave  the  Minneapolis  office  a  responsible 
agent  in  the  locality  to  whom  it  could  send  its  men.  The 
importance  of  using  all  local  labor  before  importing  transients 
has  not  been  fully  appreciated  in  the  United  States.  It  benefits 
the  local  community  by  giving  its  local  residents  the  maximum 
amount  of  employment,  by  paying  the  wages  to  people  who 
will  spend  or  invest  their  earnings  in  the  community,  and  by 
binding  the  people  of  a  community  into  closer  economic  rela- 
tions. A  local  resident  is  ordinarily  more  efficient  than  an 
outsider.  He  is  more  responsible.  He  is  on  hand  next  time 
as  well  as  now.  It  benefits  the  nation  by  decreasing  the  demand 
for  transient  labor.  We  have  hundreds  of  thousands  of  mi- 
gratory, homeless,  more  or  less  irresponsible  and  undependable 
men  in  this  country  because  there  is  a  demand  for  them  in  our 
industries.  To  just  the  extent  that  we  decrease  the  demand 
for  them  we  decrease  the  forces  which  produce  such  men.  One 
of  the  essential  labor  problems  that  confront  the  United  States 
is  the  checking  and  reduction  of  the  migrating  of  labor.  Local 
self-sufficiency  in  labor  supply  is  a  goal  to  be  striven  for  by  every 
community.  And  farming  is  one  industry  which  can  do  a 
great  deal,  as  far  as  its  own  labor  demand  is  concerned,  to  develop 
a  balance  between  local  labor  demand  and  local  labor  supply. 
During  the  war  the  maximum  utilization  of  local  labor  supply 
was  a  national  necessity  because  it  left  the  transient  labor 
available  for  localities  or  industries  which  could  not  possibly 
get  along  without  bringing  in  outsiders.  The  Minnesota  office, 
as  soon  as  it  became  fully  conversant  with  the  farming  and  the 
labor  situations  in  each  county,  was  able  to  entirely  eliminate 
two  thirds  of  the  state  from  the  Minneapolis  market.  In  other 
words,  it  was  able  to  show  those  counties  that  they  could  care 
for  their  own  crops  if  they  tried  hard  enough,  and  made  self- 
sufficiency  a  matter  of  local  pride.  Its  assistance  to  these  locali- 
ties consisted  almost  entirely  of  suggestions  to  aid  them  in  re- 
cruiting and  mobilizing  their  local  labor.  As  largely  as  possible 
the  community  was  left  to  carry  its  burden  alone.     Ordmarily, 


FARM  LABOR  30$ 

the  more  fully  a  community  realized  that  it  had  to  walk  on  its 
own  legs,  the  better  were  the  results.  No  two  counties  met 
their  problems  in  identically  the  same  way  —  but  they  all 
met  them.' 

The  importance  of  having  a  responsible  local  agent  through 
whom  to  do  business  when  sending  men  to  farms  will  hardly 
be  appreciated  by  one  who  has  never  actually  attempted  the 
task.  There  are  many  farmers  who  do  not  seem  to  realize 
the  impropriety  of  placing  an  order  for  a  man  with  an  employ- 
ment office  in  a  distant  city,  then  hiring  some  one  who  comes 
along,  and  failing  to  cancel  the  order  at  the  employment  office. 
They  seem  to  forget  the  order  as  soon  as  their  own  need  has 
been  met.  When  the  workman  sent  out  by  the  office  appears 
they  tell  him  the  job  is  filled  and  do  not  feel  any  further  responsi- 
bility in  the  matter.  A  city  employer  who  did  the  same  thing 
would  ordinarily  recognize  a  duty  to  reimburse  the  workman, 
at  least  for  his  railroad  fare.  The  farmer  indignantly  denies 
any  such  responsibility.  He  rarely  pays  for  the  loss  caused 
by  his  carelessness.  This  is  not  due  to  dishonesty  on  his  part. 
It  is  due  simply  to  lack  of  realization  of  his  relations  to  labor. 
His  consciousness  on  the  subject  is  undeveloped.  If  the  farmer 
places  his  order  with  a  local  agent,  who  can  keep  in  touch  with 
the  situation  in  the  locality,  cancellations  of  filled  places  are 
far  more  apt  to  be  sent  in.  Furthermore,  if  men  are  sent  to 
the  locality  on  a  farmer's  order,  and  the  work  has  evaporated, 
the  local  agent  is  responsible  to  them  and  for  them.  He  has 
a  duty  to  find  other  places  for  them  in  the  locality  or  else  to 
telephone  the  central  office  and  have  other  positions  assigned 
them. 

»  One  of  the  serious  errors  in  most  state  and  government  policies  is  that  they  try 
to  do  too  much  for  local  communities.  Their  programs  and  plans  are  loo  well 
worked  out,  too  stereotyped,  too  "cut  and  dried."  There  is  nothing  left  for  local 
brains  to  do  but  carry  out  other  men's  ideas.  The  constructive,  interesting  part  of 
the  task  has  been  finished.  Unfortunately,  the  stereotyped  plan  is  also  deficient 
because  so  often  poorly  adapted  to  the  particular  local  situation.  If  it  is  used,  it 
must  be  revised.  It  is  better  to  present  the  problem  to  the  locaUty  for  solution. 
Let  it  face  the  problem  as  its  own  task.  Give  it  suggestions,  acquaint  it  with  the 
experiences  of  other  localities,  encourage  it  to  follow  tlic  main  outlines  of  a  general 
plan.  But  let  it  bear  the  toil  of  the  day  and  claim  the  credit  at  eventide. 
X 


306  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

4.  The  Farm  Labor  Supply 

The  American  farm  labor  supply  is  made  up  of  a  number  of 
distinct  elements.  The  farmer's  boy  is  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant. He  absorbs  farm  technique  as  a  part  of  his  boyhood 
experiences.  As  a  young  man  he  often  varies  his  training  by 
working  as  a  farm  laborer  in  his  neighborhood  or  in  other  lo- 
calities. Thousands  of  farm  boys  from  states  farther  east 
apply  for  work  at  the  employment  offices  which  send  men  to 
the  farms  of  the  Mississippi  valley  each  year.  There  is  a  steady 
migration  of  farm  boys  to  new  localities.  A  considerable  per- 
centage of  the  farm  boys  either  eventually  become  owners  or 
else  go  to  the  cities  and  take  up  other  occupations.  Relatively 
few  of  them  remain  permanently  as  farm  laborers.  The  second 
source  of  supply  is  found  in  the  population  of  the  cities  and  towns 
contiguous  to  each  farming  district.  These  furnish  much  of 
the  crop  season  and  day  labor  for  summer  season  demands. 
They  entirely  take  care  of  the  seasonal  needs  of  the  farms  in 
many  localities.  In  the  south  the  negro  renters  work  as  day 
laborers  on  neighboring  farms,  while  the  "backwoods"  farms 
of  new  and  hilly  regions  send  thousands  of  their  owners  and  their 
children  out  to  work  as  seasonal  farm  laborers  in  better  farming 
districts.  The  mountaineers  of  West  Virginia,  Kentucky,  or 
Tennessee  find  a  counterpart  in  this  in  the  new  settlers  in  the 
northern  part  of  Wisconsin  and  Minnesota,  who  go  to  the  har- 
vest fields  to  the  west  in  large  numbers.  Transient  laborers 
who  work  at  other  times  in  the  lumber  woods,  on  railroad  work, 
for  contractors  and  in  other  employments,  go  to  the  Mississippi 
valley  grain  fields  by  the  thousands  during  the  harvest,  while 
Mexicans  come  across  the  line  to  meet  similar  demands  in  the 
south,  and  Japanese  in  the  far  west. 


CHAPTER  XV 
UNEMPLOYMENT  INSURANCE 

The  measures  which  we  have  suggested  for  the  mitigation 
of  unemployment,  and  the  organization  of  the  labor  market 
which  we  have  advocated  in  this  work,  will  not  do  away  with 
unemployment.  At  best,  they  can  but  minimize  it.  No  one 
has  yet  been  able  to  advance  a  plan  which  even  includes  the 
slightest  hope  of  entirely  eliminating  unemployment.  Under 
these  circumstances  society  must  face  the  duty  of  devising  some 
just  and  adequate  way  of  taking  care  of  those  persons  upon 
whom  unemployment  is  inevitably  forced  by  the  operation  of 
our  industrial  organization. 

There  are  three  general  methods  which  might  be  urged. 
The  worker,  theoretically,  might  save  enough  while  he  is  at 
work  to  provide  for  the  inevitable  period  of  unemployment; 
or  he  might  turn  to  charity ;  or  we  may  provide  a  system  of 
unemployment  insurance  which  will  give  the  idle  workman  a 
steady  though  diminished  income  in  periods  of  unemployment. 
The  first  solution  has  been  demonstrated  unsound  by  our  entire 
experience  to  date.  The  workers  upon  whom  unemployment 
falls  most  frequently  and  most  seriously  are  precisely  those 
whose  relative  inefficiency  keeps  down  their  earnings  while 
they  are  at  work  and  who  are  the  least  efficient  at  spending  and 
saving.  Furthermore,  the  irregularity  of  unemployment,  and 
the  impossibility  of  the  worker's  forecasting  the  date  when  it 
will  arrive,  the  period  which  it  will  last,  or  the  possibility  of 
securing  other  employment,  all  undermine  any  tendency  that 
might  exist  to  try  to  provide  for  the  idle  day  during  the  period 
of  work.  Moreover,  the  periods  of  idleness  nearly  always  mean 
the  accumulation  of  debts,  and  the  employed  period  becomes 
a  period  of  liquidating  obhgations  rather  than  preparing  for 

307 


308  THE   LABOR   MARKET 

the  future.  Most  fundamental  of  all,  however,  is  the  fact  that 
the  actual  earnings  of  the  great  mass  of  our  laborers  when  at 
work  are  at  best  no  more  than  adequate  for  current  needs. 
No  study  of  wages  has  yet  been  able  to  discover  any  addition 
to  the  wage  during  the  periods  of  employment  for  the  purpose 
of  providing  the  worker  with  savings  for  his  coming  period  of 
unemployment.  On  the  contrary,  our  industries  have  operated 
on  the  theory  that  the  employer  should  pay  for  the  support  of 
the  worker  while  in  his  employ  and  has  no  responsibility  for 
the  life  or  welfare  of  the  worker  when  the  employment  is  ter- 
minated. 

The  second  plan,  dependence  upon  charity,  has  been  the 
all  too  common  practice  in  the  past.  It  is  unsound  in  prin- 
ciple, demoralizing  in  practice,  and  repugnant  to  every  sound 
conception  of  a  democratic  civilization.  It  throws  upon  chari- 
tably disposed  individuals  in  the  community  the  obligation  of 
subsidizing  the  industry  which  has  employed  the  workmen  by 
forcing  them  to  provide  the  income  for  the  period  of  idleness 
which  should  in  one  way  or  another  have  been  provided  by 
the  workman's  employment. 

Both  dependence  upon  saving  from  wages  and  dependence 
upon  charity  are  unsound  and  undependable  methods  of  deal- 
ing with  the  fact  of  irregular  employment.  The  third  method, 
insurance  against  unemployment,  is  the  one  method  which  is 
based  upon  sound  economic  principles  and  is  in  harmony  with 
a  democratic  civilization.  Unemployment  insurance  would 
require  the  worker  and  industry  to  jointly  maintain  funds  for 
the  payment  to  necessarily  unemployed  workers  of  a  fraction 
of  their  regular  earnings  during  periods  of  idleness.  Unem- 
ployment insurance  is  unquestionably  the  most  difficult  and 
delicate  t3^e  of  insurance  to  operate  in  practice.  Sooner  or 
later  such  insurance  seems  inevitable,  but  it  will  require  the 
most  careful  study  to  work  out  a  practical  system.  It  must 
be  a  system  that  takes  into  account  human  psychology  as  well 
as  economic  facts.  It  will  have  to  avoid  subsidizing  idleness. 
It  will  have  to  be  worked  out  on  a  plan  which  makes  it  certain 
that  those  who  draw  the  insurance  are  idle  because  of  industrial 


UNEMPLOYMENT  INSURANCE  309 

conditions,  not  because  of  their  own  inclinations  or  shiftless- 
ness.  There  are  a  considerable  number  of  people  among  the 
group  most  frequently  unemployed  who  would  rather  be  idle 
on  a  very  small  income  than  to  work  for  a  much  better  income. 
The  greatest  care  will  have  to  be  exercised  to  avoid  supporting 
such  persons  on  the  insurance  funds. 

We  do  not  propose  to  enter  into  a  discussion  of  unemploy- 
ment insurance.  The  subject  is  one  which  does  not  come 
within  the  scope  of  this  work.  We  mention  it  only  because 
it  forms  an  integral  part  of  the  general  problem  of  employment 
and  unemployment.  Prevention,  placement,  and  insurance 
are  the  three  related  and  interwoven  parts  of  the  general  unem- 
ployment problem.  Every  student  of  employment  should 
thoroughly  famiharize  himself  with  the  problem  of  social  insur- 
ance which  has  already  received  considerable  discussion  in 
European  and  American  literature  and  which  has  become  a 
fact  in  England  and  in  other  countries.  Indeed,  it  has  become 
a  fact  in  America  as  a  feature  of  trade  union  organization  and 
as  a  policy  in  a  considerable  number  of  individual  industrial 
plants.  In  Belgium,  France,  Germany,  Holland,  Italy,  Switzer- 
land, and  Norway,  considerable  advances  have  been  made  in 
trade  union  and  municipal  unemployment  insurance.  Eng- 
land alone  has  attempted  the  establishment  of  such  insurance 
in  connection  with  her  national  employment  exchange  system. 


APPENDIX   I 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTE 

There  are  a  number  of  publications  which  are  of  especial 
value  as  current  sources  of  information  on  employment.  The 
New  York  Journal  of  Commerce  and  The  Annalist  are  partic- 
ularly good  on  current  business  conditions;  The  Survey  and 
the  American  Labor  Legislation  Review  on  employment  problems 
from  the  workers'  point  of  view;  and  Industrial  Management, 
The  Annals,  and  Systeju  on  employment  from  the  employer's 
point  of  view.  Articles  on  farm  labor  questions  will  be  found 
scattered  through  the  various  agricultural  papers.  The  Monthly 
Labor  Review  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
and  the  Employment  and  Unemployment  Series  of  the  Bulletin 
published  by  the  same  bureau  are  indispensable  to  one  who 
wishes  to  keep  up  to  date  on  employment  questions.  The 
monthly  bulletin  of  the  New  York  Industrial  Commission  on 
the  Labor  Market,  and  the  monthly  statistics  of  the  Ohio  Public 
Employment  Offices,  which  are  published  by  the  Ohio  Indus- 
trial Commission,  furnish  valuable  statistics. 

No  effort  is  made  in  this  bibUography  to  list  every  book 
and  article  available  on  the  subject  of  employment.  The 
author  has,  instead,  prepared  a  selected  bibliography  which 
will  enable  any  person  to  acquire  a  thorough  introduction  to 
the  various  phases  of  the  problem  of  employment. 

REFERENCE  WORKS 

Adams,  T.  S.,  and  Sumner,  H.  L.,  Labor  Problems,  1918  edition. 
Addams,  Jane,  The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets. 
Barnes,  Chas.  B.,  The  Longshoremen. 
Bevcridge,  W.  H.,  Unemployment,  a  Problem  of  Industry. 
Bloomfield,  Meyer,  Vocational  Guidance  of  Youth. 

3" 


312  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

Book,  W.  F.,  Psychology  of  Skill,  Missoula,  Mont.,  191 8,  University 

of  Montana. 
Booth,  Gen.  Bramwell,  The  Vagrant  and  Unemployable,  London,  1909. 
Brassy,  T.  S.,  and  Chapman,  S.  J.,  Work  and  Wages. 
Brewer,  J.  M.,  The  Vocational  Guidance  Movement. 
Brissenden,  Paul  F.,  The  I.  W.  W.,  a  Study  oj  American  Syndicalism. 

Columbia  University  Studies  in  History,  Economics  and  Public 

Law,  Vol.  LXXXIII,  1919. 
Brown,  Edwin  A.,  Broke,  the  Man  without  a  Dime,  1914. 
Butler,  Elizabeth,  Women  and  the  Trades. 
Carlton,  F.  A.,  The  Industrial  Situation. 
Chapin,  Robert  C,  The  Standard  of  Living  in  New  York  City. 
Chapman,  S.  J.,  and  Hallsworth,  H.  M.,  Unemployment  in  Lancashire, 

1909. 
Commons,  John  R.,  Labor  and  Administration,  1913. 
Industrial  Good  Will,  19 19. 
Trade  Unionism  and  Labor  Problems. 
Races  and  Immigrants  in  America,  1908. 
Commons,  John  R.,  and  Andrews,  J.  B.,  Principles  of  Labor  Legislation. 
Davis,  Jessie  B.,  Vocational  and  Moral  Guidance. 
Dearie,  Norman  B.,  Problems  of  Unemployment  in  the  London  Building 

Trades. 
Devine,  E.  T.,  Misery  and  its  Causes. 
Douglas,  A.  W.,  Fitting  Employees  for  New  Jobs. 
Drage,  Geofifrey,  The  Unemployed. 
Eaves,  Lucille,  A  History  of  California  Labor  Legislation,  University 

of  CaUfornia  Publications  in  Economics,  Vol.  II,  Aug.  23,  1910, 
Ely,  Richard  T.,  Outlines  of  Economics,  1916. 

Property  and  Contract. 
Ely,  Richard  T.,  R.  H.  Hess,  C.  K.  Leith,  T.  N.  Carver,  The  Founda- 
tions of  National  Prosperity,  Part  IV,  191 7. 
Faries,  John  C,  The  Economic  Consequences  of  Physical  Disability, 

A  Case  Study  of  Civilian  Cripples  in  New  York  City,  191 8,  Red 

Cross  Institute. 
Fitch,  John,  The  Steel  Workers. 

Friedman,  Elisha  M.,  editor,  American  Problems  of  Reconstruction. 
Gibbons,  J.  G.,  Unemployment  Insurance. 
Gillette,  John  M.,  Constructive  Rural  Sociology. 
Gray,   John   H.,    Vocational  Education.     Three  lectures,   Published 

by  the  City  Council  of  the  City  of  Santa  Monica,  California. 


APPENDIX  I  313 

Hartness,  James,  The  Human  Factor  in  Works  Management,  191 2. 

Hayes,  E.  C,  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,  191 5. 

Hendearschott,  F.  C,  and  Weakley,  F.  E.,  The  Employment  Depart- 
ment and  Employee  Relations.     La  Salle  University. 

Hobson,  J.  A.,  Work  and  Wealth;  a  Human  Valuation,  1914. 

Hollander,  Jacob  H.,  The  Abolition  of  Poverty,  1914. 

Hounvich,  Isaac,  Immigration  and  Labor. 

Hoxie,  R.  F.,  Scientific  Management  and  Labor. 

Kellor,  Frances  A.,  Out  of  Work. 

Kelly,  R.  W.,  Hiring  tJie  Worker. 

MacLean,  Annie  M.,  Wage  Earning  Wotnen. 

Marshall,  Alfred,  Principles  of  Economics,  5th  edition. 

Mess,  H.  A.,  Casual  Labour  at  the  Docks. 

Mill,  F.  C,  Contemporary  Theories  of  Unemployment  and  Unemploy- 
ment Relief,  Columbia  University  Studies,  1917. 

Mitchell,  John,  Tlie  Wage  Earner  and  His  Problem. 

More,  Louise  B.,  Wage  Earners'  Budgets. 

Odencrantz,  Louise  C,  Italian  Women  in  Industry. 

Parmalee,  M.,  Poverty  and  Social  Progress. 

Puffer,  J.  Adams,  Vocaiio7ial  Guidance. 

Rauschenbusch,  Walter  F.,  Christianizing  the  Social  Order. 

Robinson,  Emily,  Vocational  Education. 

Ross,  E.  A.,  The  Old  World  in  the  New. 

Rowntree,  B.  Seebohm,  How  the  Laborer  Lives. 

Rowntree,  S.,  and  Lasker,  B.,  Unemployment,  A  Social  Study. 

Rubinow,  J.  M.,  Social  Itisurance. 

Schloss,  D.  F.,  Insurance  against  Unemployment. 

Schneider,  Herman,  Education  for  hidustrial  Workers. 

Seager,  H.  R.,  Social  Insurance,  A  Program  of  Social  Reform. 
Principles  of  Economics,  191 3  edition. 

Slichter,  S.,  The  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,  1918. 

Solenberger,  Alice  A.,  One  Thousarui  Homeless  Men,  1911. 

Stoddard,  W.  L.,  The  Shop  Committee,  A  Handbook  for  Employers 
and  Employees. 

Streightoflf,  F.  H.,  The  Standard  of  Living. 

TarbeU,  Ida  M.,  New  Ideals  in  Business,  pp.  258-289. 

Towne,  E.  T.,  Social  Problems,  igij. 

Van  Kleeck,  Mary,  Artificial  Flower  Makers,A  Seasonal  Industry,  1913. 
Women  in  the  Book  Bifiding  Trade. 

Veblen,  Thorstein,  The  Instinct  of  Workmanship. 


314  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Ward,  Lester  F.,  Applied  Sociology. 

Warne,  Frank  Julian,  The  Immigrant  Invasion. 

Webb,  Sidney,  Problems  of  Modern  Industry. 

The  Works  Manager  To-day. 

The  Prevention  of  Destitution. 

(editor)  Seasonal  Trades,  19 12. 

and  Beatrice,  The  Public  Organization  of  the  Labour  Market. 
Weeks,  A.  D.,  The  Psychology  of  Citizenship,  Chicago,  1917. 
Wooley,  Clarence  M.,  The  Labor  Aspect  of  Reconstruction. ^ 
Wyckoff,  Walter  A.,  The  Workers,  East. 

The  Workers,  West. 

REPORTS  AND   BULLETINS 

Adams,  R.  L.,  and  Kelley,  T.  R.,  A  Study  of  Farm  Labor  in  Cali- 
fornia. Circular  No.  193,  March,  1918,  College  of  Agriculture, 
University  of  California. 

Allen,  Andrew  J.,  Policies  and  Methods  of  Employment  Agencies 
Maintained  by  Employers'  Associations.  Bulletin  192,  U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 

American  Association  of  Public  Employment  Offices,  Proceedings  for 
1916.     Bulletin  220,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 

Annual  or  Biennial  Reports,  California  Public  Employment  Bureau. 
New  York  Public  Employment  Offices. 
Ohio  Public  Employment  Offices. 
Minnesota  Public  Employment  Offices. 
Illinois  Public  Employment  Offices. 

Annual  Reports  of  California  Commission  on  Immigration  and 
Housing. 

Ashton,  W.  G.,  Plan  for  Gathering  and  Distributing  Harvest  Hands 
in  the  Grain  States.  Bulletin  192,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Sta- 
tistics. 

Barker,  O.  E.,  Brooks,  C.  F.,  and  Hainsworth,  R.  G.,  A  Graphic 
Summary  of  Seasonal  Work  on  Farm  Crops,  Separate  from  Year 
Book  of  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  191 7. 

Barnes,  Charles  B.,  Report  on  Conditions  and  Management  of  Public 
Employment  Offices  in  the  Bidletin  192,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor 
Statistics. 
Annual  Report  of  New  York  Industrial  Commission,  1917. 

Beckerle,  H.  J.,  Developing  a  Farm  Hand  Business.  Bulletin  192, 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 


APPENDIX  I  315 

The  Beet   Sugar  Industry  of  the   United  States.     Report  of  the 

Federal  Trade  Commission,  1917. 
Bliss,  W.  D.  P.,  What  is  Done  for  the  Unemployed  in  European 

Countries.     Bulletin  76,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  May, 

1908. 
Bloomfield,  Meyer,  Problems  of  Industrial  Management.    Bulletin 

247,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Bureau  of  Industries  and  Immigration  of  New  York,  State  Depart- 
ment of  Labor,  Report  of  191 1. 
Clayton,  C.  T.,  Destructive  Labor  Recruiting.     Bulletin  247,  U.  S. 

Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment  in  the  State 

of  New  York,  191 1.     Third  Report. 
Conditions  of  Employment  in  the  Iron  and  Steel  Industry',  Report  on, 

Vol.  Ill,  U.  S.   Congress,  Senate  Document,  No.   no.  Sixty- 
second  Congress,  ist  session,  1913. 
Conditions  of  Women  and  Child  Wage  Earners  in  the  United  States, 

Summary  of  Report  on;  Bulletin  175,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor 

Statistics. 
Connecticut   Commission  on  Wage  Earning  Women  and  Minors, 

Report  of  Feb.  4,  19 13. 
Country  Life  Commission,  Report  of  191 1. 
Course  of  Employment  in  New  York  State  from  1904  to  1916.    Special 

Bulletin  No.  85,  New  York  State  Department  of  Labor. 
Devine,  E.  T.,  Report  on  Employment  Bureau  in  New  York  City, 

1909.     Russell  Sage  Foundation. 
Eliot,  H.  M.,  B.  F.  Brown,  Man  Power  in  Agriculture,  Bulletin  of 

Agricultural  and  Mechanical  College  of  Texas,  Oct.  19 18. 
Employment  Managers  Conferences,  Proceedings  of.     Bulletins  196, 

221,  227,  247.     U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Employment  of  Women  in    Milwaukee    Power  Laundries,    United 

States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  BuUetin  No.  122. 
Hart,  Hornell,  Fluctuations  in  Unemployment  in  Cities  of  the  United 

States,  1902  to  191 7.     Helen  S.  Trounstine  Foundation.     Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio,  Vol.  I,  No.  2. 
Hennessy.W.  F.,  Experience  in  Extending  and  Improving  the  Work 

of  a  Public  Employment  Office.     BuUetin  192,  U.  S.  Bureau  of 

Labor  Statistics. 
Herndon,  Public  Employment  OfTiccs  in  the  United  States.     Bulletin 

241,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  LaboT  Statistics. 


3l6  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Industrial  Education.     Report  of  Committee  of  National  Association 

of  Manufacturers,  Proceedings  of  Convention,  19 17, 
Industrial  Relations  Commission.     Report  of  191 2. 
Industrial  Welfare  Commission  of  the  State  of  Washington,  Report  of 

1914. 
Labor  Laws  of  the  United  States.     Published  by  U.  S.  Bureau  of 

Labor  Statistics. 
Lasker,  Bruno,  The  British  System  of  Labour  Exchanges.     Btdletin 

206,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Leiserson,  Wm.  M.,  A  Federal  Labor  Reserve  Board.     Bulletin  220, 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Lightner,  Jacob,  Is  a  National  Bureau  of  Employment  Desirable? 

Bulletin  220,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
The  Lumber  Industry  of  California.     Sixteenth  Biennial  Report, 

Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  State  of  California,  1914. 
McCaflfree,  Chas.,  National  Farm  Labor  Exchange.     Bulletin  192, 

U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
McCoy,  L.  D.,  What  Must  be  Done  to  Make  Public  Employment 

Offices  More  Effective?    Bulletin  192,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor 

Statistics. 
McLaughlin,  Hugh,  Labour  Exchanges  in  the  United  Kingdom.    Re- 
port, Ontario  Commission  on  Unemployment,  1916,  Appendix  A. 
Man  Power  in  Agriculture,  Bulletin  of  the  Agriculture  and  Mechanical 

College  of  Texas,  CoUege  Station,  Texas,  Oct.,  1918. 
Massachusetts  Board  to  Investigate  the  Subject  of  Unemployment, 

Report  of  1895.     House  Doc.  No.  50. 
Massachusetts    Commission   on    Minimum   Wage    Boards.     House 

Document  No.  1697,  191 2. 
Massachusetts  Minimum  Wage  Commission.     Bulletin  No.  9,  Wages 

of  Women  in  Women's  Clothing  Factories  in  Massachusetts, 

Sept.,  1915. 
Bulletin  No.  6,  Wages  of  Women  in  Retail  Stores. 
Bulletin  No.  8,  Wages  of  Women  in  Paper  Box  Factories. 
Bulletin    No.    4,    Wages    of    Women    in    Candy    Factories    in 

Massachusetts. 
Metcalf,   H.   C,   Report  of  Committee  on  Vocational   Guidance, 

N.  Y.,  1916. 
Report  of  National  Association  of  Corporation  Schools. 
Minnesota  Department  of  Labor  and  Industries.     Biennial  Reports, 

Part  on  Employment  Offices. 


APPENDIX  I  317 

Mulhauser,  Hilda,  Cooperation  among  Federal,  State  and  City  Em- 
ployment Bureaus.    Bulletin  220,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Vocational  Guidance  and  Public  Employment  Offices.     Bulletin 

192,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
National  Employment  System.    Hearings  before  the  Joint  Committee 

on  Labor,  66th  Congress,  first  session,  on  S.  688,  S.  1442  and 

N.  R.  4305,  1919. 
National    Society    for    the    Promotion    of    Industrial    Education, 

Washington,  D.  C,  Publications. 
New  Jersey,  Report  of  Commission  of  Immigration  of,  1914. 
New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Unemployment, 

1911. 
New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission,  Fourth  Report,  Vol.  II. 
New  York  Industrial  Commission,  Annual  Reports  of. 
Odencrantz,  Louise  C,  The  Placing  of  Women  by  Public  Employment 

OiSces.     Bulletin  192,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
O'Leary,  Wesley  A.,  Report  on  Wage  Value  of  Vocational  Training, 

Fourth  Report,  New  York  Factory  Investigating  Commission, 

Albany, 1915. 
Ontario  Commission  on  Unemployment,  Report  of,  1916. 
Prosser,  Chas.  A.,  The  Educational  Aspect  of  the  National  Labor 

Policy.     Bulletin  220,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Public  Employment  Offices  in  the  United  States.     Bulletin  241,  U.  S. 

Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Rates  of  Wages,  Hours  of  Labor,  and  Fluctuations  of  Employment 

in  Ohio  in  1914.     Bulletin  of  the  Industrial  Commission  of  Ohio, 

Sept.  15,  1915.     Idem.,  Dec.  15,  1916. 
Seasonal  Work  on  Farm  Crops,  A  Graphic  Summary'  of.     Separate 

from  Year  Book  of  Department  of  Agriculture,  1917,  No.  758. 
Selecting  Workmen  (Symposium).     Bulletin  247,  U.  S.  Bureau  of 

Labor  Statistics. 
Smith,  M.,  Baker,  O.  E.,  Hainsworth,  R.  G.,  A  Graphic  Summary  of 

American  Agriculture.     Separate  from  Year  Book  of  the  U.  S. 

Department  of  Agriculture,  1915. 
Social  Problems  of  the  Group.    Bulletin  247,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor 

Statistics. 
Spitz,    Joseph,    Federal-State-Municipal    Employment    Service    in 

New  Jersey.     Bulletin  220,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Strike  of  Textile  Workers  in  Lawrence,  Mass.,  Report  on,   191 2. 

Document  No.  870,  Sixty-second  Congress,  second  session. 


3i8  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

Trades  and  Labour  Branch  of  the  Department  of  Public  Works, 
Province  of  Ontario,  Report  of,  19 17. 

Training  Labor  Executives  (Symposium).     Bulletin  247,  U.  S.  Bureau 
of  Labor  Statistics. 

Unemployment  in  the  United  States.     Bulletin  195,  U.  S.  Bureau  of 
Labor  Statistics. 

United  States  Census,  19 10,  Vol.  V,  VIII. 

United   States  Employment   Service,  Annual   Report   of  Director 
General,  1918. 

United  States  Immigration  Commission,  Abstract  of  Report  of,  191 1, 
2  vols. 

Vagrancy  Committee,  Report  of  the,  1906,  London. 

Vocational  Education,  Federal  Board  for,  Washington,  D.  C.     Bul- 
letins I,  17. 

Wages  and  Hours  of  Labor  in  the  Iron  and  Steel  Industry,  1907  to 
1915.     Bulletin  218,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Sta^tistics. 

WiUitts,  J.  H.,  The  Regularization  of  Employment  by  Employers,  in 
Report  of  Ontario  Commission  on  Unemployment,  1916. 

WUson,  Wm.  B.,  A  National  System  of  Employment  Offices.     Bul- 
letin 220,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 

Wisconsin  State  Board  of  Vocational  Education.     Bulletin  i. 

Women  and  Child  Wage  Eartiers,  Report  on.     Senate  Document 
No.  645,  Sixty-first  Congress,  second  session,  1913. 
Vol.  16,  Family  Budgets  of  Typical  Cotton  Mill  Workers. 
Vol.  18,  Employment  of  Women  and  Children  in  Selected  Indtistries. 

MAGAZINE  ARTICLES  AND   SPEECHES 

Abbott,  Grace,  The  Chicago  Emplojonent  Agency  and  the  Immigrant 
Worker.    American  Journal  of  Sociology,  Vol.  XIV,  No.  3,  1908. 

Alden,  Percy,  Dilution  of  Labor.     Contemporary  Review,  Sept.  1916. 

Alexander,  Magnus  W.,  Hiring  and  Firing:  Its  Economic  Waste  and 
How  to  Avoid  it.     The  Annals,  May,  1916. 
Cost  of  Hiring  and  Firing  Men.     Industrial  Management,  Feb- 
ruary, 1915. 

Andrews,  Irene  Osgood,  Relation  of  Irregular  Employment  to  Living 
Wage  for  Women.    American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  1915. 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science. 
Personnel  and  Employment  Problems  (Symposium).     The  Annals, 
May,  1916. 


APPENDIX   I  319 

Stabilizing  Industrial  Employment   (Symposium).     The  Annals, 

May,  1917. 
A    Reconstruction    Labor    Policy    (Symposium).     The    Annals, 

Jan.  1919. 
Industries  in  Readjustment  (Symposium).   The  Annals,  March,  1919. 
Bailie,  G.  H.,  Dilution  of  Skilled  Labor  and  Women  in  Industries. 

American  Machinist,  Nov.  29,  191 7. 
Barnes,    Chas  B.,  Public  Bureaus   of  Employment.     The  Annals, 

Jan.  1917. 
Barnes,  Chas.  B.,  Employment  and  the  Labor  Market.     American 

Economic  Review,  Supplement,  March,  19 18. 
Barnett,  Geo.  E.,  Employment  and  the  War.     American  Economic 

Review,  Supplement,  March,  1918. 
Bloomfield,  Meyer,  The  Employment  Manager.     American  Fcdcra- 

tionist,  September,  19 18. 
Relations  of  Foremen  to  the  Working  Force.    Industrial  Manage- 
ment, June,  1917. 
Bogart,  E.  L.,  Public  Employment  Offices  in  the  United  States  and 

Germany.     Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  Vol.  19,  p.  341  (1900). 
Bowie,  G.  W^,  Foremen  Such  as  America  Needs.    Industrial  Manage- 
ment, August,  1917. 
Boy  Soldiers  of  the  Soil,  W.  P.  McGuire.     The  Forum,  July,  19 18. 
Boys'  Working  Reserve.     U.  S.  Monthly  Labor  Review,  June,  191 7. 
Boys'  Working  Reserve,  Organization  and  Purpose.     School  Review, 

Feb.  1918. 
Boys'  Working  Reserve.     Manual  Training,  April,  1918. 
Boys'  Working   Reserve,    The   Boy,    the    War,    and   the   Harrow, 

H.  D.  Fisher.     The  Survey,  Mar.  30,  1918. 
Clayton,  Chas.  T.,  Training  that  Promotes  Production.     Industrial 

Management,  April,  1919. 
Training  Labor :  A  Necessary  Reconstruction  Policy.     The  A  nnals, 

Jan.  1919. 
Clothier,  R.  C,  Relations  between  the  Employment  ^lanager  and 

Other  Department  Heads.     Industrial  Management,  Jan.  1917. 
Commons,  John  R.,  Labor  Conditions  in  Slaughtering  and  Meat 

Packing.     Quarterly  Journal  of  Economics,  Vol.  19,  pp.  1-32. 
Cooke,  Morris  L.,  Responsibility  and  Opportunity  of  the  City  in 

the  Prevention  of  Unemployment.     American  Labor  Legislation 

Review,  Nov.  191 5. 
Casual  and  Chronic  Unemployment.     The  Annals,  May,  191 5. 


320  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

Coulter,  John  Lee,  Agricultural  Laborers  in  the  United  States.     The 

Annals,  Mar.  191 2. 
Densmore,  J.  B.,  Lessons  of  the  War  in  Shifting  Labor.     The  Annals, 

Jan.  1919. 
Department  of  Employment  and  Labor  Maintenance.    Industrial 

Management,  Sept.,  19 18. 
Devine,  Edward  T.,  Employment  Bureau  for  the  People  of  New  York 

City.     The  Annals,  March,  1909. 
The  U.   S.   Employment  Service,   an  Analysis  and  a  Forecast. 

Tlie  Survey,  April,  1919. 
Douglas,  Paul  H.,  The  Problem  of  Labor  Turnover.     The  American 

Economic  Review,  June,  19 18. 
Eaton,  J.  M.,  Vestibule  Schools  of  Nichols  Motor  Co.     hidustrial 

Management,  Dec,  1918. 
Eberle,   George  J.,  Labor  Turnover.     American  Economic  Review, 

Mar.  1919. 
Emmett,  Boris,  Labor  Turnover  and  Employment  Pohcies  of  a  Large 

Motor  Manufacturing  Establishment.     Monthly  Labor  Review, 

Oct.  1918. 
Employing    the    Employment    Manager.    Industrial    Management, 

August,  1918. 
Fairchild,    H.    F.,    Immigration    and    Crises.     American   Economic 

Review,  Vol.  i,  No.  4,  Dec.  191 1. 
Field,  Jas.  A.,  Problems  of  Population  after  the  War.     American 

Economic  Review,  March,  191 7. 
Fish,  E.  H.,  Principles  of  Employing  Labor.   Industrial  Management, 

April,  1919. 
Fisher,  Boyd,  How  to  Reduce  Labor  Turnover.    Industrial  Manage- 
ment, March,  191 7. 
Fisher,  H.  D.,  The  Boy,  the  War,  and  the  Harrow.     The  Survey j 

Mar.  30,  1918. 
Fisher,  Irving,  Humanizing  Industry."  The  Annals,  March,  1919. 
Frankel,  Emil,  Labor  Turnover  of  Seamen  on  the  Great  Lakes. 

Monthly  Labor  Review,  June,  1918. 
Franklin,  Benj.  A.,  Training  Men  for  Steady  Jobs.    Industrial  Man- 
agement, Dec.  1916. 
Gehris,  M.  D.,  Employment  Problems  and  How  the  John  B.  Stetson 

Co.  Meets  Them.     The  Annals,  May,  1916. 
Halsey,  Olga  L.,  Compulsory  Unemployment  Insurance  in  Great 

Britain.     American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  1915. 


APPENDIX   I  321 

Hambrecht,  Geo.  P.,  Industrial  Experience  of  Handicapped  Work- 
men in  Wisconsin.  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  Mar. 
1919. 

Hammond,  M.  B.,  Regulation  and  Control  of  Private  Emplojmient 
Agencies.     Bulletin  192,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
Lessons  from  the  English  War  Experience  in  the  Employment  of 
Labor.     American  Economic  Review,  Supplement,  Mar.  1918. 

Henderson,  C.  R.,  The  Struggle  against  Unemployment.  American 
Labor  Legislation  Review,  May,  19 14. 

Hobart,  M.  C,  The  Problem  of  Labor  Turnover.  American  Ma- 
chinist, May  16,  1918. 

Hodges,  Henry  G.,  Progress  of  the  Public  Employment  Bureaus. 
Tlie  Annals,  Jan.  1917. 
Statutory  Provisions  for  and  Achievement  of  Public  Employment 
Bureaus.     The  Annals,  May,  191 5. 

Hopkins,  E.  M.,  Advantages  of  Centralized  Employment.  The 
Annals,  May,  1917. 

Howe,  H.  C,  Getting  the  Workman  to  Remember  to  Work.  Boston 
Evening  Transcript,  Oct.  23,  1918. 

Hurchman,  W.  F.,  Labor  Feasts  and  Famines.  Metal  Industry, 
Dec.  1918. 

International  Association  of  Unemployment.  Monthly  Labor  Review, 
April,  1917. 

Irwin,  Will,  The  Floating  Laborer.  Saturday  Evening  Post,  May  9, 
1914,  Vol.  186,  No.  45,  pp.  3-5,  41-50. 

Jackson,  J.  P.,  Relation  of  the  State  to  Unemployment.  American 
Labor  Legislation  Review,  1915. 

Jones,  Mark  E.,  What  I  would  Do  if  I  were  a  Foreman.  Industrial 
Management,  July,  1918. 

Kelly,  R.  W.,  Employment  Manager  and  Foreman.  Industrial 
Management,  Jan.  1918. 

Kimball,  D.  S.,  Labor  Maintenance  Service  as  a  Factor  in  Manage- 
ment.    Indtistrial  Management,  Oct.  1917. 

Labor  Turnover  in  the  Cloak  Industry  of  Cleveland.  Monthly  Labor 
Review,  August,  19 18. 

Lavell,  Cecil  F.,  The  Man  WTio  Lost  Himself.     Atlantic  Monthly, 
Nov.  191 7. 
From  the  Diary  of  a  Laborer.     Atlantic  Monthly,  May,  1919. 

Leiserson,  Wm.  M.,  Public  Employment  Offices  in  Theory  and  Prac- 
tice, American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  May,  19 14. 
y 


322  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

A  Federal  Labor  Reserve  Board  for  the  Unemployed.     The  Annals, 

Jan.  1917. 
The  Movement  for  Public  Labor  Exchanges.     Journal  of  Political 

Economy,  July,  191 5. 
Mobilizing  and  Distributing  Farm  Labor  in  Ohio.     Monthly  Labor 

Review,  April,  191 8. 
The  Shortage  of  Labor  and  the  Waste  of  Labor.     The  Survey, 

Mar.  30,  1918. 
The  Labor  Shortage  and  the  Organization  of  the  Labor  Market. 

The  Survey,  April  20,  19 18. 
Lescohier,  D.  D.,  A  Clearing  House  for  Labor.     Atlantic  Monthly, 

June,  1918. 
The  Employment  Service  as  a  Means  of  Public  Education.     Indus- 
trial Management,  April,  1919. 
Immigration  and  the  Supply  of  Labor  after  the  War.    Atlantic 

Monthly,  April,  1919. 
Letters  of  a  Down-and-Out.     The  Atlantic  Monthly,  February,  1913. 
Levying  Tribute  on  Those  Seeking  Work.     The  Survey,  Vol.  36,  p.  457. 
Litchfield,  I.  W.,  The  U.  S.  Employment  Service  and  Demobilization, 

The  Annals,  Jan.  1919. 
MacDonald,  Nettie  W.,  Extreme  Methods  in  Employing.    Industrial 

Management,  April,  19 19. 
McGuire,  W.  P.,  Boy  Soldiers  of  the  Soil.     The  Forum,  July,  1918. 
Mackey,  Harry  A.,  Employment  Opportunities  for  Rehabilitating 

Men  in  Pennsylvania.     Industrial  Management,  April,  1919. 
Mallery,  Otto  F.,  A  National  Policy:    PubHc  Works  to  Stabilize 

Employment.     The  Annals,  Jan.  19 19. 
Mayor's  Committee  on  Unemployment  of  New  York  City,  Report  of. 

Monthly  Labor  Review,  May,  1916. 
Miles,  H.  E.,  Vestibule  Schools  for  the  Unskilled.    Industrial  Man- 
agement, July,  19 18. 
Mitchell,   John,   Vocational  Rehabilitation  of   Crippled  Industrial 

Workers.     Fifteenth  Biennial  Conferences  of  CathoUc  Charities, 

CathoUc  University,  Washington,  D.C.,  Sept.  15,  1918. 
Morrison,  C.  J.,  Short  Sighted  Methods  in  Dealing  with  Labor. 

Industrial  Management,  Jan.  1914- 
Mulhauser,  A.,  Principles  of  Labor  Turnover.     Industrial  Manage- 

ment,  Jan.  1919. 
Mulhauser,  Hilda,  Public  Employment  Bureaus  and  their  Relation  to 

Managers  of  Employment  in  Industry.     The  Annals,  May,  1916. 


APPENDIX   I  323 

Neland,  Elsa,  Juvenile'  Employment  Exchanges.    American  Labor 
Legislation  Review,  June,  191 5. 

New  Art  of  Labor  Management.     The  Survey,  July  13,  igi8. 

New  York  Journal  of  Commerce. 

Nichols,  E.  F.,  The  Employment  Manager.     The  Annals,  May,  1916. 

O'Hana,  Frank,  Redistribution  of  Public  Work  in  Oregon.   American 
Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  19 15. 

Otis,  Robinson  V.,  Rehabilitation  of  Industrial  Cripples  in  Massa- 
chusetts.   Industrial  Management,  April,  1919. 

Papers    on    Tenancy.    American    Economic    Review,    Supplement, 
March,  1919. 

Parker,  Carleton  H.,  Motives  in  Economic  Life.     American  Economic 
Review,  Supplement,  March,  19 18. 
The  I.  W.  W.,  Atlantic  Monthly,  Nov.,  1917. 

Portenar,  A.  J.,  Reconstruction,  A  Survey  and  a  Forecast.     The 
Annals,  Mar.  19 19. 

Post,  Louis  F.,  Government  Intervention  in  Idleness.     The  Survey, 
Vol.  34,  p.  270,  June  19,  1915. 
How  the  U.  S.  Department  of  Labor  is  Helping  to  \\'in  the  War. 
Industrial  Management,  Mar.  1918. 

A  Practical  Program  for  the  Prevention  of  Unemployment  in  America. 
American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  191 5. 

Price,  C.  O.,  How  an  Industry  Trains  its  Men.     Industrial  Mafiage- 
ment,  Oct.  1916. 

Reactionary   Decision   Regarding   Private   Employment   Agencies. 
New  Republic,  June  30,  191 7. 

Richter,  F.  E.,  Seasonal  Fluctuations  in  Public  Works.     American 
Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  191 5. 

Rindge,  Fred  D.,  Jr.,  From  Boss  to  Foreman.     Industrial  Manage- 
ment, July,  1917. 

Roder,  Oscar,  Employment  Plans  and  Methods.    'Industrial  Manage- 
ment, July,  191 7. 

Seager,  H.  R.,  Coordination  of  Federal,  State,  and  Municipal  Employ- 
ment Bureaus.     American  Economic  Review,  Supplement,  March, 
1918. 
The  English  Method  of  Dealing  with  the  Unemployed.     American 
Labor  Legislation  Review,  May,  1914. 

Speek,  Peter  A.,  The  Psychology  of  Floating  Workers.  The  Annals, 
Jan.  1917. 

Stanbrough,  D.  G.,  Packard  Training  Schools  for  Employees.     In- 
dustrial Management,  Nov.  1918. 


324  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

Tead,  Ordway,  The  U.  S.  Employment  Service  and  the  Prevention  of 

Unemployment.     American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  Mar.1919. 
Terms  of  Employment  of  Farm  Labor.     Monthly  Labor  Review,  June, 

1918. 
Tobin,  John  F.,  The  Workers  and  Unemployment.     American  Labor 

Legislation  Review,  June,  19 15. 
Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,  Entire  numbers  of  American 

Labor  Legislation  Review,  of  May,  1914,  and  June,  1915,  and 

parts  of  issue  of  March,  1919. 
Unemployment   Insurance,    Present   Status   of.     American    Labor 

Legislation  Review,  May,  19 14. 
United    States    Employment    Service :     Conserving    Farm    Labor. 

Monthly  Labor  Review,  May,  19 18.     Farm  Labor  Specialists  to 
*  aid  Farmers  in  Securing  help.     Ibid.,  Feb.,  1918. 
The    United    States    Employment    Service    and    Demobilization. 

Monthly  Labor  Review,  Jan.  Feb.  19 19. 
Valentine,  Robert  G.,  What  the  Awakened  Employer  is  Thinking  on 

Unemployment.     American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  191 5. 
Van  Harlinger,  J.  M.,  and  Dwyer,  T.  J.,  Methods  of  Arriving  at  Labor 

Turnover.     Industrial  Management,  April,  19 18. 
Verity,  G.  M.,  Why  We  have  no  Trouble  with  Our  Men.     System, 

Vol.  33,  May,  1916. 
Wardrop,  G.  W.,  "O  Hell,"  or  "Hello."    Industrial  Management, 

Feb.,  1918. 
Webb,  Sidney,  The  Problem  of  Unemployment  in  the  United  King- 
dom.    The  Amials,  Mar.  1909. 
Weinstock,  Harris,  Immigration  and  American  Labor.     The  Annals, 

Jan. 1917. 
What  it  Costs  to  Hire  and  Fire.     Literary  Digest,  April  27,  1918,  p.  25. 
Why  Men  Leave  their  Jobs.     Industrial  Management,  Aug.  1918. 
Wilcox,  E.  v..  Plan  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  for  Handling 

the  Farm  Labor  Problem.     American  Economic  Review,  Supple- 
ment, Mar.  1918. 
Willits,  J.  H.,  The  Labor  Turnover  and  the  Humanizing  of  Industry. 

The  Annals,  Sept.  1915. 
The  Wisconsin  Apprentice,  Published  by  Industrial  Commission  of 

Wisconsin,  Madison,  Wis. 
Worman,   H.   A.,   Recruiting  the   Working  Force.     Factory,   Dec. 

1 90  7- Jan.  1909. 
Worker's  View  of  Labor  Turnover.     Industrial  Management,  April, 

1919. 


REFERENCES 

CHAPTER  I 

"Immigration  and  Labor,"  Isaac  A.  Hourwich,  Chapter  IV. 

"The  Immigrant  Invasion,"  Frank  Julian  Warne. 

"The  Industrial  Situation,"  Frank  T.  Carlton,  Chapter  VII. 

"The  Longshoremen,"  Charles  B.  Barnes. 

"The  Old  World  in  the  New,"  E.  A.  Ross.     Especially  Chapter  IX. 

"Poverty  and  Social  Progress,"  Maurice  Parmalee,  Chapters  I,  X,  XII- 

XIII. 
"Problems  of  Poverty,"  John  A.  Hobson,  Chapter  VIII. 
"Races  and  Immigrants  in  America,"  John  R.  Commons. 
"Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chapters  I, 

II,  V. 
"Unemployment,  A  Social  Study,"  S.  Rowntree  and  B.  Lasker. 
"The  Wage  Earner,"  John  Mitchell,  Chapter  II. 

Magazine  Articles 

"The  Economic  Aspects  of  Immigration,"  I.  A.  Hounvich,  Political  Science 

Quarterly,  Vol.  XXVI,  No.  4. 
"Immigration  and  American  Labor,"  Harris  Weinstock,  The  Annals,  Jan. 

1917. 
"Immigration  and  the  Supply  of  Labor  after  the  War,"  Don  D.  Lescohier, 

The  Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1919. 
"Immigration  Standards  after  the  War,"     Henry  P.  Fairchild,  The  AnnaJs 

of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and  Social  Science,  Jan.  1919. 
"Problems  of  Population  after  the  War,"  James  A.  Field,  American  Economic 

Review,  March,  1917. 

CHAPTER   II 

"  Artificial  Flower  Makers,"  Mary  Van  Klecck. 
"A  Seasonal  Industry  "  (Millinery),  Mary  Van  Kleeck. 
"Italian  Women  in  Industry,"  Louise  C.  Odencrantz. 
"The  Longshoremen,"  Charles  B.  Barnes. 

"Problems  of  Unemployment  in  the  London  Building  Trades,"  Norman  B. 
Dearie. 

325 


326  THE   LABOR   MARKET 

'Report  on  Conditions  of  Employment  in  the  Iron  and  Steel  Industry 
in  the  United  States."  Document  no,  62nd  Congress,  ist  Session, 
1909,  Chapter  VIII,  on  Irregularity  of  Employment. 

'Report  of  Ontario  Commission  on  Unemployment,"  1916.  Part  II, 
Chapters  I-III ;    Part  III. 

'Report  on  Strike  of  Textile  Workers  in  Lawrence,  Mass.,"  191 2.  Docu- 
ment 870,  62nd  Congress,  2nd  Session,  pp.  75-78. 

'The  Seasonal  Labor  in  Agriculture,"  Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations 
Commission,  Vol.  V,  pp.  4911-5027. 

'Seasonal  Trades,"  Sidney  Webb  (ed.). 

'The  Unemployed,"  GeofiFrey  Drage  (1894). 

'Unemployment,  a  Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chapters 
III,  IV. 

'Unemployment  in  California,"  Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations  Com- 
mission, Vol.  V,  pp.  5029-5085. 

'Unemployment  in  Lancashire,"  S.  J.  Chapman  and  H.  M.  Hallsworth. 

'Wage  Earning  Women,"  Annie  M.  MacLean. 

'Women  and  the  Trades,"  Elizabeth  Butler. 

'Women  in  the  Book  Binding  Trade,"  Mary  Van  Kleeck. 

'Work  and  Wages,"  T.  S.  Brassey  and  S.  J.  Chapman,  Chapter  V. 

CHAPTER   III 

'Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chapters 

V-VII. 
'Misery  and  its  Causes,"  Edward  T.  Devine,  Chapters  III,  V. 
'Unemployment  in  New  York  City,"  Bulletin  172,  United  States  Bureau  of 

Labor  Statistics. 
'  UnemplojTnent  in  the  United  States,  Bulletin  195,  United  States  Bureau  of 

Labor  Statistics. 
'Family  Budgets  of  Typical  Cotton  Mill  Workers,"  Report  on  Woman  and 

Child  Wage  Earners  in  the  United  States.     Senate  Document  No.  64J, 

6ist  Congress,  2nd  session,  1911,  Vol.  16. 
'Prevention  of  Destitution,"  Sidney  Webb,  pp.  130-137. 
'Poverty  and  Social  Progress,"  Maurice  Parmalee,  Chapters  III,  IX,  and  X. 
'Conditions  of  Employment  in  the  Iron  and  Steel  Industry  in  the  United 

States."    Senate  Document,  No.  no,  62nd  Congress,  ist  Session,  Vol. 

III. 
'The  Spirit  of  Youth  and  the  City  Streets,"  Jame  Addams,  Chapter  V. 
'Idleness  as  a  Source  of  Waste,"  Thomas  N.  Carver,  in  The  Foundations  of 

National  Prosperity,  R.  T.  Ely;   R.  H.  Hess;   C.  K.  Leith;   and  T.  N, 

Carver.     Part  IV,  Chapter  III. 
'How  the  Labourer  Lives,"  B.  Seebohm  Rowntree. 
'One  Thousand  Homeless  Men,"   Alice    Solenberger,    Chapters   IV- VI, 

X-XII. 


REFERENCES  327 

"The  Abolition  of  Poverty,"  Jacob  H.  Hollander,  Chapter  VII. 
Third  Report,  New  York  Commission  on  Employers'  Liability  and  Un- 
employment, 191 1,  on  "Unemployment  and  Lack  of  Farm  Labor," 

Appendix  I. 
"Irregularity  of  Employment,"  MonlMy  Labor  Review,  March,  1916,  pp. 

220,  232;   April,  1916,  pp.  354,  403;   May,  1916,  p.  446. 
TAe  i4»«o/5,  September,  191 5;    May,  1916;    Supplement. 
"Relation  of  Irregular  Employment  to  Living  Wage  for  Women,"  Irene 

Osgood  Andrews,  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  191 5. 
"Citizens  in  Industry,"  Chas.  R.  Henderson,  Chapter  V. 
"Unemployment,  A  Problem  of  Industry,"  American  Labor  Legislation 

Revie-w,  May,  1914. 
"Unemployment,"  ibid.,  June,  1915. 
"Labor  and  Reconstruction,"  ibid.,  March,  1919. 

"Unemployment  in  Lancashire,"  S.  J.  Chapman  and  H.  M.  Hallsworth. 
"Dependents,  Defectives,  and  Delinquents,"  Chas.  R.  Henderson,  2nd  ed. 

Chapter  VI. 
"Social  Organization,"  C.  H.  Cooley,  Chapter  XXVI. 
"Contemporary  Theories  of  Unemployment  and  of  Unemployment  Relief," 

Columbia  University  Studies  in  PoUtical  Science,  Vol.  LXXIX,  No.  i 

(entire  book).     Frederick  C.  Mills. 

CHAPTER  IV 

"The  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,"  Sumner  Slichter. 

"Industrial  Good  Will,"  John  R.  Commons. 

"A  Reconstruction  Labor  Policy,"  The  Annals,  Jan.  1919. 

"Stabilizing  Industrial  Employment,"  The  Annals,  May,  191 7. 

"Humanizing  Industry,"  Irving  Fisher,  The  Annals,  March,  1919. 

"The  Labor  Aspect  of  Reconstruction,"  Clarence  M.  Wooley,  The  Annals, 

March,  1919. 
"Reconstruction,  a  Survey  and  a  Forecast,"  A.  J.  Portenar,  The  Annals, 

March,  1919. 
"Selecting  Workmen,"  (a  symposium)  Bulletin  247,  United  States  Bureau  of 

Labor  Statistics. 
"Social  Problems  of  the  Group,"  ibid. 
Bulletin  227,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  pp.   13-73,  82-91, 

173-190. 
Bulletins  ig6,  212,  227,  U .  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
"Lessons  for  English  War  Experience  in  the  Employment  of  Labor,"  M.  B. 

Hammond,  American  Economic  Review,  Supplement,  March,  1918. 
"Labor  Turnover  and   Employment   Policies  of  a   Large   Motor   Manu- 
facturing   Establishment,"    Boris    Emmet,    Monthly    Labor    Kevitw, 

October,  19 1 8. 


328  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

"Labor  Turnover  in  the  Cloak  Industry  of  Cleveland,"  Monthly  Labor 

Review,  August,  19 lo. 
"Principles  of  Labor  Turnover,"  A.  Mulhauser,  Industrial  Management, 

January,  1919. 
"Labor  Feasts  and  Famines,"  W.  F.  Hurchman,  Metal  Industry,  December, 

1918. 
"Labor  Maintenance  Service  as  a  Factor  in  Management,"  D.  S.  Kimball, 

Industrial  Management,  October,  191 7. 
"How  to  Reduce  Labor  Turnover,"  Boyd  Fisher,  Industrial  Management, 

March,  191 7,  p.  882. 
"Labor  Turnover  of  Seamen  in  the  Great  Lakes,"  Emil  Frankel,  Monthly 

Labor  Review,  June,  1918,  pp.  46-53. 
"The  Labor  Turnover  and  the  Humanizing  of  Industry,"  Joseph  H.  Willits, 

The  Annals,  September,  1915. 
"Getting  the  Workman  to  Remember  to  Work,"  H.  O.  Howe,  Boston 

Evening  Transcript,  October  23,  1918. 
"Hiring  and  Firing;   its  Economic  Waste  and  How  to  Avoid  it,"  Magnus 

W.  Alexander,  The  Annals,  May,  1916,  p.  128. 
"Cost  of  Hiring  and   Firing  Men,"   Magnus   W.   Alexander,  Industrial 

Management,  February,  191 5. 
"Methods  of  Arriving  at  Labor  Turnover,"  J.  M.  Van  Harlinger  and  T.-J. 

Dwyer,  Industrial  Management,  April,  1918. 
"Short  Sighted  Methods  in  Dealing  with  Labor,"  C.  J.  Morrison,  Industrial 

Management,  January,  1914. 
"What  it  Costs  to  Hire  and  Fire,"  Literary  Digest,  Vol.  57,  p.  25,  April 

27,  1918. 
"The  Problem  of  Labor  Turnover,"  Paul  H.  Douglas,  American  Economic 

Review,  June,  19 18. 
"Why  Men  Leave  their  Jobs,"  Industrial  Management,  August,  1918,  p.  147. 
"A  Worker's  View  of  Labor  Turnover,"  Industrial  Management,  April,  1919. 
"Labor  Turnover,"  George  J.  Eberle,  American  Economic  Review,  March, 

1919. 

CHAPTER  V 

"Unemployment,  a  Problem  of  Industry,"  W.  H.  Beveridge,  Chapters 

VIII-X. 
"Prevention  of  Destitution,"  Sidney  Webb,  Chapter  VI. 
"Principles  of  Labor  Legislation,"  J.  R.  Commons  and  J.  B.  Andrews, 

Chapter  VI. 
"A  Practical  Program  for  the  Prevention  of  Unemployment,"  American 

Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  1915. 
"Contemporary  Theories  of  Unemployment  and  Unemployment  Relief," 

F.  C.  Mill,  Columbia  University  Studies,  191 7. 
"Unemployment,  a  Social  Study,"  B.  S.  Rowntree  and  B.  Lasker. 


REFERENCES  329 

"Unemployment  in  Lancashire,"  S.  J.  Chapman  and  H.  M.  Hallsworth. 
"What  is  done  for  the  Unemployed  in  European  Countries,"  W.  D.  P. 

Bliss,  Bulletin  y6,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  May,  1908. 
"The  English  Method  of  Dealing  with  the  Unemployed,"  H.  R.  Seager, 

American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  May,  1914,  p.  281. 
"Work  and  Wages,"  T.  S.  Brassey,  S.  J.  Chapman,  pp.  304-400. 
"Scientific  Management  and  Labor,"  Robert  F.  Hoxie,  pp.  34-39. 
"Applied  Sociology,"  Lester  F.  Ward,  Chapter  X. 

"Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Sociology,"  E.  C.  Hayes,  Chapter  XXXV. 
"Christianizing  the  Social  Order,"  Walter  F.   Rauschenbusch,  Part  V, 

Chapter  HI. 
"The  Public  Organization  of  the  Labour  Market,"  Sidney  and  Beatrice 

Webb. 
"Seasonal  Trades,"   Preface  and   Introduction,  edited   by  Sidney  Webb 

and  Arnold  Freeman. 
"The  Problem  of  Unemplo>Tnent  in  the  United  Kingdom,"  Sidney  Webb, 

The  Annals,  March,  1909,  pp.  196-216. 
"Casual  and  Chronic  Unemployment,"   Morris  L.   Cooke,   The  Annals, 

May,  1915,  p.  184. 
Report  of  Mayor's   Committee   on  Unemployment   of  New  York   City, 

Monthly  Labor  Review,  May,  1916. 
Report  of   the  Massachusetts   Board    to  Investigate   the  Subject  of  the 

Unemployed,  1895.     House  Document  No.  50.      (Contains  comparison 

of  unemployment  relief  measures  in  the  United  States,  England  and 

Germany  during  the  depression  of  1892-1898.) 
Third   Report  of  New   York   Conmiission  on  Employers'   Liability  and 

Unemployment. 
Report  of  Ontario   Commission  on  Unemployment.     An  unusually  con- 
structive report,  Part  I;  Part  II,  Chapters  IV- VI  and  Appendix  C, 

deal  with  measures  for  preventing  or  relieving  unemployment. 
"The  Vocational  Guidance  Movement,"  J.  M.  Brewer. 
"Training  that  Promotes  Production,"  Chas.  T.  Clayton,  Industrial  Manage- 
ment, April,  1919. 
"Industrial  Experience  of  Handicapped  Workmen  in  Wisconsin,"  George 

P.  Hambrecht,  American  Labor  Legislation  Rei^iew,  March,  1919. 
"Principles  of  Employing  Labor,"  E.  H.   Fish,  Industrial  Management, 

April,  1919. 
"Rehabilitation  of  Industrial  Cripples  in  Massachusetts,"  V.  Otis  Robinson, 

ibid.,  p.  126. 
"Employment   Opportunities   for   Rehabilitating  Men   in  Pennsylvania," 

Harry  A.  Mackey,  ibid.,  p.  130. 
"Vocational  Rehabihtation  of  Crippled  Industrial  Workers,"  John  Mitchell, 

Fifteenth  Biennial  Conference  of  Catholic  Charities,  Catholic  University, 

Washington,  D.  C,  Sept.  15-18,  1918. 


33©  THE  LABOR   MARKET 

"Dilution  and  Special  Training,"  Sjmiposium,  Bulletin  247,  United  States 
Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 

"Social  Problems  of  the  Individual,"  Symposium,  Bulletin  247,  ibid. 

"Educational  Aspect  of  the  National  Labor  Policy,"  Chas.  A.  Prosser,  ihid. 

"Industrial  Education  and  Apprenticeship,"  Final  Report,  Industrial 
Relations  Commission,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1901-1903;  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  2929-2982. 

"Packard  Training  Schools  for  Employees,"  D.  G.  Stanbrough,  Industrial 
Management,  November,  1918,  p.  378. 

"Vestibule  Schools  for  the  Unskilled,"  H.  E.  Miles,  Industrial  Management, 
July,  1918. 

"Vestibule  Schools  of  Nichols  Motor  Co.,"  J.  M.  Eaton,  Itidustrial  Manage- 
ment, December,  1918,  p.  452. 

"Training  Men  for  Steady  Jobs,"  Benj.  A.  Franklin,  Industrial  Management, 
December,  1916. 

"How  an  Industry  Trains  its  Men,"  Clarence  O.  Price,  Industrial  Manage- 
ment, October,  1916. 

Publications  of  National  Society  for  the  Promotion  of  Industrial  Educa- 
tion, Washington,  D.  C. 

**  Contemporary  Theories  of  Unemployment  and  of  Unemployment  Relief," 
Columbia  University  Studies  in  Political  Science,  Vol.  LXXIX,  No.  i 
(entire  book).     Frederick  C.  Mills. 

CHAPTER  VI 

Final  Report  of  Industrial  Relations  Commission,  pp.  1165-1212;    1223- 

1231;  1301-1308;   1323-1328;    1337-1342;    1375-1379- 
*'A  History  of  California  Labor  Legislation,"  Lucile  Eaves,  University  of 

California  Publications  in  Economics,  Vol.  II,  Aug.  28,  1910,  pp.  341-350. 
*' Statutory  Regulation  of  Private  Employment  Agencies,"  Monthly  Labor 

Review,  August,  1917,  p.  352. 
"Reactionary  Decision  Regarding  Private  Employment  Agencies,"  New 

Republic,  June  30,  191 7,  pp.  234-235. 

CHAPTER  VII 

"Report  on  Employment  Bureau  in  New  York  City,"  Edward  T.  Devine, 

1909  (Russell  Sage  Foundation). 
"Public  Employment  Offices  in  the  United  States,"  Bulletin  241,  United 

States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  July,  1918. 
Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations  Commission,  Vol.  II,  pp.  1 275-1301. 

(Particularly  good  with  respect  to  Massachusetts  offices  up  to  igii). 
"Statutory    Provisions    for    and    Achievements    of    Public    Employment 

Bureaus,"  Henry  B.  Hodges,  The  Annals,  May,  1915. 
"Progress  of  the  Public  Employment  Bureaus,"  Henry  B.  Hodges,  The 

Annals,  January,  1917. 


REFERENCES  331 

"Public  Bureaus  of  Employment,"  Chas.  B.  Barnes,  ibid. 

"International   Association   of   Unemployment,"    Monthly   Labor   Review, 

April,  1916,  pp.  85-91. 
"Public  Employment  Offices  in  the  United  States  and  Germany,"  Ernest 

L.  BogdiXt, Quarterly  Journal  of  Eco>wmics,Vo\.'K.lK,pi^.  341-377  (1900). 
Monthly  Labor  Review,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics,  contains  data  each 

month.     The  work  of  public  employment  offices  can  be  followed  back 

through  the  Review  for  a  number  of  years. 

CHAPTER   DC 

The  U.  S.  Employment  Service  Bulletin,  issued  each  week  by  the 
U.  S.  Employment  Service,  January  21,  1918,  to  February  28,  1919. 

"The  United  States  Employment  Service;  an  Analysis  and  a  Forecast," 
Edward  T.  Devine,  The  Survey,  April  5,  1919. 

"Lessons  of  the  War  in  Shifting  Labor,"  John  B.  Densmore,  The  Attnals, 
January,  1919,  p.  28. 

"The  United  States  Employment  Service  and  Demobilization,"  L  W.  Litch- 
field, The  Annals,  January,  1919,  p.  19. 

"The  United  States  Employment  Service  and  Demobilization,"  Monthly 
Labor  Review,  January,  1919,  pp.  119-125;  February,  1919,  pp.  117- 
123. 

"The  United  States  Employment  Service  and  the  Prevention  of  Unemploy- 
ment," Ordway  Teed,  American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  March,  1919, 
Vol.  IX,  No.  I,  p.  93. 

Annual  Report,  Director  General,  United  States  Employment  Service, 
to  the  Secretary  of  Labor,  1918. 

"How  the  United  States  Department  of  Labor  is  Helping  to  Win  the  War," 
Louis  P".  Post,  Industrial  Management,  January,  1918. 

CHAPTER  XII 

"Hiring  the  Worker,"  R.  W.  KeUy. 

"The  Works  Manager  To-day,"  Sidney  Webb. 

"Scientific  Management  and  Labor,"  R.  F.  Ho.xie. 

"The  Shop  Committee,  a  Handbook  for  Employers  and  Employees,"  Wm. 

L.  Stoddard. 
Monthly  Labor  Review,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics.     See 

issues  of  June,  1918,  October,  1918,  and  January,  1919,  and  consult 

index  for  articles  in  more  recent  numbers. 
Proceedings  of  the  Employment  Managers  Conferences,  reported  in  BttUclin, 

Nos.  iq6.  331.  337,  347,  United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
"The  Turnover  of  Factory  Labor,"  Sumner  Slichter. 
"Problems  of  Industrial  Management,"   Meyer  Bloomfield,  Bulletin  347, 

United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics. 
"Training  Labor  Executives"  (Symposium),  ibid. 


332  THE  LABOR  MARKET 

"Selecting  Workmen,"  ibid.,  pp.  1 12-147. 

"Extreme  Methods  in  Employing,"    Nettie  W.   MacDonald,  Industrial 
Management,  April,  1919. 

"Employment  Problems  and  How  the  John  B.  Stetson  Company  Meets 
Them,"  Milton  D.  Gehris,  The  Annals,  May,  1916. 

"Department  of  Employment  and  Labor  Maintenance,"  Industrial  Manage- 
ment, September,  1918. 

"Why  we  Have  no  Trouble  with  our  Men,"  G.  M.  Verity,  System,  Vol.  33, 
p.  707,  May,  1916. 

"Employing  the  Employment  Manager,"  Industrial  Management,  Vol.  56, 
p.  145,  August,  1918. 

"First  Epoch  of  a  New  Profession,"  Meyer  Bloomfield,  Industrial  Manage- 
ment, July,  19 1 8. 

"New  Art  of  Labor  Management,"  The  Survey,  Vol.  40,  p.  433,  July  13, 
1918. 

"The  Employment  Manager,"  Meyer  Bloomfield,  American  Federationist, 
September,  1918. 

"Employment  Plans  and  Methods,"  Oscar  Roder,  Industrial  Management, 
July,  1917,  p.  559- 

"Relations  Between  the  Employment  Manager  and  Other  Department 
Heads,  R.  C.  Clothier,  Industrial  Management,  January,  191 7. 

"From  Boss  to  Foreman,"  Fred  D.  Rindge,  Jr.,  Industrial  Management, 
July,  191 7. 

"Foremen  such  as  America  Needs,"  George  W.  Bowie,  Industrial  Manage- 
ment, August,  19 1 7. 

"Employment  Manager  and  Foreman,"  R.  W.  Kelly,  Industrial  Manage- 
ment, January,  1918. 

"O  Hell,"  or    "Hello  "  ?  George  W.  Wardrop,  Industrial   Management, 
February,  19 18. 

"Relations  of  Foremen  to  the  Working  Force,"  Meyer  Bloomfield,  Itidustrial 
Management,  June,  191 7. 

"What  I  would  do  if  I  were  a  Foreman,"  Mark  E.  Jones,  Industrial  Manage- 
ment, July,  1 91 8. 

Selection  of  Employees. 

Articles  presenting  various  methods  of  testing  fitness  of  employees  will 
be  found  in  The  Annals,  May,  1916;  Industrial  Management,  May, 
June,  November,  and  December,  191 6;  January,  April,  June,  August, 
December,  1917;    January,  June,  September,  October,  1918. 

CHAPTER  Xni 

Abstracts  of  Reports  of  Immigration  Conmiission,  191 1,  Vol.  I,  pp.  593- 

561.     (Discusses  itinerant,  immigrant  agricultural  labor.) 
Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations  Commission,"  pp.  1165-1177. 
"The  Workers,  East,"  Walter  A.  Wyckofif. 


REFERENCES 


333 


"The  Workers,  West,"  Walter  A.  Wyckoff. 

"The  Dock  Workers  of  New  York  City,"  Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations 
Commission,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  2051-221 2. 

"Sweating  System  in  the  Clothing  Trade,"  John  R.  Commons,  Report 
U.  S.  Industrial  Commission,  in  1901,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  319-352;  reprinted 
in  "Trade  Unionism  and  Labor  Problems,"  Commons 

"Out  of  Work,"  Frances  A.  Kellor. 

"Labor  Conditions  in  Construction  Camps,"  Final  Report,  Industrial  Rela- 
tions Commission,  Vol.  VI,  pp.  5087-5168. 

"The  Steel  Workers,"  John  Fitch,  Chapter  II. 

"The  I.  W.  W.,"  Carleton  H.  Parker,  Atlantic  Monthly,  November,  191 7. 

"The  Man  Who  Lost  Himself,"  Cecil  F.  Lavell,  Atlantic  Montfily,  November, 
1917. 

"From  the  Diary  of  a  Laborer,"  Cecil  F.  Lavell,  Atlantic  Monthly,  May, 
1919. 

"The  Seasonal  Labor  in  Agriculture,"  Final  Report,  Industrial  Relations 
Commission,  Vol.  V,  pp.  491 1-5027. 

"Unemployment  in  California,"  ibid.,  pp.  5029-5085. 

"The  Psychology  of  Migratory  Labor,"  P.  A.  Speek,  The  Anttals,  January, 
1917. 

"Casual  Labour  at  the  Docks,"  H.  A.  Mess. 

"The  Public  Employment  Office  as  a  Means  of  Public  Education,"  D.  D. 
Lescohier,  Industrial  Management,  April,  1919. 

"One  Thousand  Homeless  Men,"  Alice  Solenberger. 

"Problems  of  Poverty,"  J.  A.  Hobson,  1913,  Chapter  MIL 

"The  I.  W.  W.,  a  Study  of  American  Syndicalism,"  Paul  F.  Brissenden, 
Vol.  LXXXIII,  1919,  Columbia  University,  Studies  in  History,  Econom- 
ics and  Public  Law. 

"Vocational  Education,"  Three  Lectures,  John  H.  Gray,  Published  by  the 
City  Council  of  the  City  of  Santa  Monica,  Santa  Monica,  California. 

"Report  on  the  Ontario  Commission  on  Unemployment,"  191 6,  pp.  77  79; 
101-112;   201-202;   228;   234-236. 

"Report  of  the  Vagrancy  Committee,"  London,  1906. 

"The  Vagrant  and  Unemployable,"  Gen.  BramwcU  Booth,  London,  1909. 

"Reports  of  the  California  Commission  on  Immigration  and  Housing. 

CHAPTER  XIV 

"Man  Power  in  Agriculture,"  H.  M.  Eliot  and  B.  F.  Brown,  Bulletin  of 
Agricultural  aiul  Mechanical  College  of  Texas,  October,  19 18.  (Graphic 
demonstration  of  value  of  spreading  work  on  farm  as  evenly  as  possible 
throughout  the  year.) 

"A  Graphic  Summary  of  Seasonal  Work  on  Farm  Crops,"  O.  E.  Baker, 
C.  F.  Brooks,  and  R.  G.  Hainsworlh.  Separate  from  Year  Book  of 
the  U.  S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  1917. 


334  THE   LABOR   MARKET 

"A  Graphic  Summary  of  American  Agriculture,"  M.  Smith,  O.  E.  Baker, 

R.  G.  Hainsworth,  Year  Book  of  Department  of  Agriculture,  1915. 
"A  Study  of  Farm  Labor  in  California,"  R.  L.  Adams  and  T.  R.  Kelley, 

Circular  No.  193,  March,  1918,  College  of  Agriculture,  University  of 

California. 
"Constructive  Sociology,"  John  M.  Gillette,  191 5,  Chapters  IV,  VI,  and  X. 
"Agricultural  Laborers  in  the  United  States,"  John  Lee  Coulter,  The  Annals, 

March,  191 2,  p.  40. 
Report  of  the  Country  Life  Commission,  191 1,  pp.  91-100;    103-106. 
Abstracts  of  Reports  of  the  Immigration  Commission,  191 1,  Vol.  I,  pp. 

593-561. 

Final  Report  of  Industrial  Relations  Commission,  Vol.  V,  pp.  4911-5085. 

"Terms  of  Employment  of  Farm  Labor,"  Monthly  Labor  Review,  June,  1918. 

"United  States  Employment  Service  Conserving  Farm  Labor,"  Monthly 
Labor  Review,  May,  191 8. 

"Mobilizing  and  Distributing  Farm  Labor  in  Ohio,"  W.  M.  Leiserson, 
Monthly  Labor  Review,  April,  1918. 

"Farm  Labor  Specialists  to  Aid  Farmers  in  Securing  Help,"  Monthly  Labor 
Review,  February,  1918. 

"Paper  on  Tenancy,"  American  Economic  Review,  Supplement,  March, 
1919.  (Reprinted  as  Bulletin  No.  2,  American  Association  for  Agri- 
cultural Legislation,  Secretary's  Office,  Madison,  Wis.) 

"Effects  of  the  Great  War  upon  Agriculture  in  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain,"  Benjamin  Hibbard.  Carnegie  Endowment  for  International 
Peace,  Oxford  University  Press,  New  York. 

CHAPTER  XV 

"Social  Insurance,  a  Program  of  Social  Reform,"  Henry  R.  Seager. 

"Social  Insurance,"  I.  M.  Rubinow. 

"Unemployment  Insurance,"  J.  G.  Gibbon. 

"Insurance  against  Unemployment,"  D.  F.  Schloss. 

"The  Prevention  of  Destitution,"  Sidney  Webb. 

"Unemployment  in  Lancashire,"  S.  J.  Chapman  and  H.  M.  Hallsworth. 

"Present  Status  of  Unemplo3Tnent  Insurance,"  American  Labor  Legislation 

Review,  May,  1914. 
"Compulsory  Unemployment  Insurance  in  Great  Britain,"  Olga  S.  Halsey, 

American  Labor  Legislation  Review,  June,  1915. 


INDEX 


Accidents,  industrial,  02-93. 

"Acts  of  God"  as  cause  of  idleness,  97. 

Advisory  boards,  172,  194-96,  200-02, 
210-11,  221-27;  Canadian,  210-11; 
community,  195,  221,  223,  226; 
English,  200-02;  National,  200,  223; 
State,  194,  221,  223,  226. 

Agricultural  Labor,  see  Farm  Labor, 
Harvest  Labor. 

Agriculture,  U.  S.  Department  of, 
190-91,  302-03. 

American  Association  for  Labor  Legis- 
lation, 170-71. 

American  Association  of  Public  Employ- 
ment Offices,  167-68. 

American  Bankers  Association,  259. 

Annals  of  the  American  Academy,  171. 

Apprenticeship,  74-75,  85-87,  132-33, 
135-8. 

Attitude  of  Labor  to  Employment 
Offices,  165,  168,  194,  207. 

Barnes,  Charles  B.,  183. 

Barnett,  George  E.,  214-15. 

Bates,  Lyndon,  109. 

Beet  Sugar  Industry,  36. 

Beveridge,  W.  H.,  267,  268-70. 

Blatchy,  Charles  K.,  260-61. 

Blind    Alley    Occupation,    76-79,     118, 

134-35.  251. 
Boys'  Working  Reserve,  189,   191. 
Building  Industry,  29,  58. 
Business  Conditions,  Effects  of  Varying, 

22-24,  29-32,  64-66. 

California  College  of  Agriculture,  298- 
300;  farm  labor  in,  298-301. 

Can  Manufactures,  46. 

Canadian  Employment  Service,  2io-ii. 

Casual  Employments,  51-52,  58-64. 

Casual  Laborers,  58-64,  75,  263-70;  defi- 
nition of,  263,  264 ;  causes  of,  264 ; 
types,  264 ;  responsibility  of  em- 
ployers, 265-66 ;  decasualization,  267  ; 
relation  of  public  employment  offices 
to,  269-70. 


Cities,  Employment  Needs  of,  204-06. 

Clayton,  Charics  T.,  182. 

Clearance,  Division  of,  188-89. 

Clearance,  English  System  of,  203-04. 

Clearance,  U.  S.  Employment  Service, 
227-31. 

Clearance,  227;  need  for,  227;  munici- 
pal, 227-29;  difficulties,  229;  speed, 
229-30;   state,  229-31 ;   national,  231. 

Climate,  effect  on  farm  labor  demand, 
286-7. 

Confectionery  Manufacturers,  47. 

Continuation  School,  see  Vocational 
Schools. 

Control,  Division  of,  188-89. 

Cost  of  Turnover,  1 14-18. 

Cost  of  Unemployment,  102-10,  122- 
23 ;  effect  on  earnings,  102-07 ;  on 
efficiency,  107-10;   social  loss,  122-23. 

Cotton  Manufactures,  17,  52-54. 

Country  Life  Commission,  277-79. 

Crop  diversification,  282-86. 

Cyclical  fluctuations  of  employment, 
64-66. 

Decasualization,  267-70. 

Decentralization  of  labor  supply,  13-18; 
of  labor  demand,  21-22. 

Demand  for  labor,  21-67. 

Depressions,  business,  22-24,  29-32, 
64-66. 

Democracy,  industrial,  124-26. 

Dcnsmorc,  J.  B.,  183,  187. 

Department  stores,  61. 

Direct  application  for  work,  143. 

Dissatisfaction  with  work,  cause  of  idle- 
ness, 89-92. 

Distribution  of  labor,  19-20. 

Dock  labor,  60. 

Douglas,  Paul,  117. 

Dovetailing  of  labor  demands,  130-32, 
143-44.  232. 

Dressmaking,  37-39. 

Efficiency  in  employment  service,  234- 
36 ;      conservation     of     labor,    7 '  ff ; 


335 


336 


INDEX 


97-icx),  132-35.  135-38;  Continua- 
tion School,  132-33 ;  Mothers' 
Pensions,  133-34;  blind  alley  oc- 
cupations, 134-35 ;  education  of 
adults,  135-38. 

Ely,  Richard  T.,  141. 

Employers,  attitude  toward  U.  S. 
Employment  Service,  164-65,  193, 
200-02,  224-25;  attitude  toward 
British  Service,  202,  206-07,  ^nd 
demand  for  labor,  21-67;  265-67; 
and  unemployment,  124-30;  and 
labor  reserve,  14-19,  52;  and  labor 
turnover,  18-19. 

Employers  Associations'  Employment 
Offices,  158-59. 

Employment  agencies  —  profit  seeking, 
business  methods,  153-57;  182-83; 
evils  of,  146,  149-50,  153-54,  155-58, 
162,  182-83;  regulation,  146-47,  150- 
53;  Ontario  Law,  1 50-5 2  ;  prohibition 
of,  147  ;  Washington  decision  on,  147  ; 
railroad  agencies,  147-54;  interstate 
character  of  business,  149-50 ;  teachers, 
145-46;  collegiate  bureaus,  145-46; 
clerical  and  professional,  145-46. 

Employment,      methods     of     securing, 

143-44. 

Employment  Exchanges,  pubhc,  see 
also,  "U.  S.  Employment  Service," 
"Federal  Employment  Service"; 
lack  of  adequate,  19-20. 

Employment  Manager,  245-46. 

Employment  Management,  124-29,  242- 
50 ;  importance  of,  242-45 ;  relation 
to  pubhc  employment  service,  242, 
246-48;    value  to  industry,   243-45. 

Employment  Problem,  214-16;  national 
interests  in,  214-16;  local  interests, 
215-16. 

England,  employment  exchanges  of, 
201-10;  form  of  organization,  200, 
203 ;  growth,  202-03  ;  statistics,  203 ; 
clearance,  203-04;  policies,  207-08; 
business  principles,  208-10;  manage- 
ment, 208-10. 

England,  seasonal  variations  of  employ- 
ment, 17-18,  50-51. 

Failures^ercentage  of  people  who  are, 

259- 
Farm   labor,    problem    stated,    276-77 ; 
year    round    demand,    279-80;     crop 
season   demand,   280-81 ;    short   time 
demands,    281 ;    skill    required,    280- 


82  ;  crop  diversification,  effect  of,  282  - 
88;  local  variations  in  farm  labor 
demand,  286;  shortage  of,  276-86, 
306 ;  opportunities  of  advancement, 
277.  301 ;  irregularity  of  farm  work, 
277,  279;  employment  office,  relation 
to,  278-81 ;  marriage,  effect  of,  280- 
81 ;  supply,  306 ;  conditions  in  various 
states,  288-301. 

Federal  Director  of  Employment,  186- 
87,  225. 

Federal  Employment  Council,  201-02, 
211,  223-24,  225-26. 

Federal  Employment  Service,  need  for, 
19-20,  160-61 ;  under  Bureau  of 
Immigration,  174-76;  basic  principles 
of,  in  England  and  Canada,  208-11; 
in  U.  S.,  212-23;  United  States 
Employment  Service,  186-99 ;  Advisory 
board,  200-02,  221 ;  number  of  offices, 
204-06 ;  tentative  plan  for  such  a  serv- 
ice, 212-41 ;  functions  of,  130-32,  135- 
38,  207-08,  231-34,  267-75,  301-05; 
local  interests  in,  215;  finances  of, 
216-20;  state  and  local  coopieration, 
216-20;  management  of,  220-23; 
attitude  of  labor,  164;  of  employers, 
164-65,  193,  200-02,  224-25;  training 
of  unemployed,  135-38. 

Field  Organization,  Division  of,  188-89. 

Frres  as  cause  of  unemployment,  97. 

Fluctuations  in  demand  for  labor,  21-67. 

Gompers,  Samuel,  177. 

Har\'est  labor,  see  also  Farm  labor. 

organization  of,  173. 
Health  and  Employment,  92-94. 
Hiring  of  labor,  129. 
Hobson,  John  A.,  107. 
Hoot,  Harry  W.,  271. 

Idleness,  defined,  68;    causes  of,  70-76, 

94;    training  during,  135-38- 
Immigration,  3-9,  16,  81-82,  147-48. 
Immigration,  Bureau  of,  174-76,  186. 
Incidence  of  Unemployment,  97-100. 
Indiana,  farm  labor  in,  289-90. 
Industrial     Education,    85-88,     iig-21, 

132-33,  135-38. 
Industries,    employment    conditions    in 

various,  22-24,  29-32,  32-51. 
Inefficiency,       labor,       71  ff;        135-38, 

97-100. 


INDEX 


337 


Information  on  labor  market  conditions, 

189,  198,  234;   division  of,  189. 
Irregular  employment,  51-64,  68,  102-07, 

259-75  ;    laborers,    types  of,    259-75  ; 

relation  of  public  employment  ofl&ce 

to,  267-75. 

Johnson,  Alba  B.,  178. 

Kansas  farm  labor,  292. 
Kelley,  Mrs.  Florence,  78-70. 
Kentucky  farm  labor,  291. 

Labor  Demand,  see  Demand  for  Labor. 

Laborer,  The,  74-82,  251-75,  see  also 
Casual,  Decasualization. 

Labor  Legislation,  effect  on  unem- 
ployment, 87-88. 

Labor  market,  disorganization  of,  71, 
141-63,  164-81,  182-85,  192 ;  defined, 
141-42. 

Labor  Reserve,  see  Reserve  of  Labor. 

Labor  Shortage,  179-84.  192. 

Labor  Supply,  see  Supply  of  Labor. 

Labor  Turnover,  see  Turnover  of  Labor. 

Land  Reclamation,  175-76. 

Larson,  A.  H.,  273-74. 

Lasker,  Bruno,  239. 

Laundries,  45-46. 

Leiserson,  William  M.,  274. 

Lescohier,  D.  D.,  272. 

Local  interests  in  employment,  215- 
16. 

Lodging  house  population,  260-61,  272, 
274. 

Loyalty  of  employes,  89-92. 

Lumbering,  35-36. 

McLaughlin,  Hugh,  209. 

Management  of  employment  exchanges, 

167-68,  231-40. 
Market,  defined,  141-42. 
Massachusetts  employment  service,  172- 

73- 
Migratory  habits  of  workers,  18,  114-151 

270-73. 
Minnesota,  farm  labor,  294-95,  302-05 ; 

commissioner  of  labor,  168-70. 
Mississippi,  296. 
Mitchell,  John,  109. 
Montana  farm  labor,  295-96. 
Mothers'  Pensions,  132-34. 

National  Employment  Exchange,  273. 
National  Farm  Labor  Exchange,  173. 


Neutrality,  of  public  exchanges,  237. 
Night  Schoob,  see  Vocational  Schools. 

Ohio,  employment  service  of,  172;   war 

labor  demands  of,  181-82. 
Ontario,     Law     to     regulate    agencies, 

150-52. 
Overtime,    effect    on    employment,    46, 

48,   54-SS.   129- 

Panics,  64-66. 

Paper  box  manufactures,  39-40. 

Part-time  work,  56-58,  see  also  "Under 

Employment." 
Peddling  labor,  143-44. 
Pennsylvania  farm  labor,  288-89. 
Per  Capita  test  of  emplojTnent  efiBciency, 

235-36. 
Personnel     in    public    employment    ex- 
changes, 165,  168-70, 174-75,  187,  189, 

196-97,  240-41. 
Philanthropic    employment    exchanges, 

159- 
Post,  Louis  F.,  175-76. 
Post  Office,  as  employment  agency,  175. 
Poverty,  as  bar  to  efficiency,  132-34. 
Prejudices,  against    public    employment 

service,  193-94,  200-02,  206-07. 
Private     Employment      Agencies,     see 

Employment  Agencies. 
Productivity   of  Labor,  72-73    see   also 

Efficiency. 
Public      Employment      Agencies,      see 

"Federal  Employment  Service." 

Quality  in  employment  service,  168-70, 
207,  235-36. 

Railway  labor  agencies,  147-54- 
Relief  work,  138. 
Reserve  of  Labor,  9-20,  52-58- 
Runners      for     employment     agendas, 
156-58. 

Scrimshaw,  Stewart,  83,  86. 

Seager,  Henry  R.,  141. 

Seasonal  unemployment,  effect  on  wages, 
102-07. 

Seasons,  effect  on  employment,  32-5'; 
differences  in  industries,  33-48 ;  causes 
of  seasonal  fluctuations  of  employ- 
ment, 41-47;  winter  vs.  summer  in 
employment,  48-51;  fluctuation 
within  seasons,  51-66. 


338 


INDEX 


Selling  policies,   effect  on  employment, 

55-56. 
Skilled  labor,  dependence  on  unskilled, 

8;      independence     of     employment 

exchanges,  251. 
Slichter,  Sumner,  113,  116. 
Social  customs,  effect  on  employment,  25. 
Social   progress,   effect   on  employment, 

68. 
Solenberger,  Alice,  261-62,  272. 
South  Dakota,  farm  labor,  202-93. 
Stabilization  of  employment,  122-30. 
Standards  of  living,  94-96. 
State      employment      offices,      164-73, 

221-22. 
Steel  industry,  54-55,  72-73- 
Strikes,  239-40. 
Supply  of  Labor,  3-20. 

Tennessee  farm  labor,  290-91. 

Texas  farm  labor,  296. 

Topography,  effect  on  farm  labor  de- 
mand, 287. 

Trade  Unions,  159. 

Training  of  labor,  by  employers,  81-84; 
Vestibule  Schools,  82-84;  appren- 
ticeship, see  Apprenticeship;  Voca- 
tional Schools,  82,  87-88;  by  state, 
84-85,  135-38;  child  labor,  76-79,  see 
also  Blind  Alley;  effect  of  turn- 
over, 74-75,  77,  80-81,  115-16;  effect 
of  immigration,  81-82. 

Turnover  of  labor,  18-19,  77.  79.  89-96, 
111-21,  154,  167,  242-48. 


Under  employment,  defined,  53-64, 
68-69,  92-93.  102-03. 

Unemployable,  10,  49-50,  74-75.  94-96, 
88-89,  100-02. 

Unemployed,  definition,  10,  49-50,  68-69. 

Unemployment,  effect  on  public  employ- 
ment offices,  166-71 ;  reduction  of, 
122-38;  training  during,  135-38; 
during  war,  177-78;  statistics,  31-32, 
39-44  ;  incidence  of,  97-100. 

Unemployment  insurance,  307-09. 

U.  S.  Employment  Service,  20,  186-98, 
204-05,  213. 

Unorganized  Labor  Market,  see  Labor 
Market. 

Vacations,  176. 
Vestibule  Schools,  82-84. 
Vocational  Guidance,  233-34. 
Vocational  Schools,  82,  87,  132-33- 

Wages,  effect  of  labor  reserves,  53- 
58;  effect  of  unemployment,  102-05. 

War,  effects  on  employment,  11-13, 
23-24,  177-82. 

Wame,  Frank  J.,  105,  166. 

Washington  farm  labor,  296-98. 

Weather,  35-37,  38-39,  48-52,  56. 

Webb,  Sidney,  107-08,  270. 

Wilson,  William  B.,  240. 

Wisconsin  employment  service,  171-72. 

Zone  System,  174,  203-04. 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America. 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 

This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  below. 


MAR  1 0  1952 


i. 


tt^R 


1  o'*^^ 


SEP: 


RK'D  LD-URL 


Biomedical  Library 


M  1  '^  1983 


I)  LU-Ofc 


RECEIVED 


SEP  23  19B7 
J^f  CO  ti.»k_ 

OCT  07 1991 


'*hf  Of 


iw 


REcroowW*^ 


?  0 1974  .. 


f^pRlOl*** 


Form  L9-42m-8,'49(B5573)444 


THE  LIBRARY 

UNIVERSn  Y  OF  (  ALIFORNU 
LOS  ANGELES 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA    001  101  189    7 


